Teamsters Take Concessions in New Carhaul Agreement

Less than a week after showing its muscle by forcing the second-largest carhauler out of business with a short strike, the Teamsters union reached a concessionary master agreement in mid-June with the remaining unionized carhaul companies.

Covering 9,000 drivers at four companies, the agreement contains far-reaching job security and wage concessions for carhaulers, who transport cars from factories to dealers.

Together with its larger competitor Allied Holdings, the liquidated company, Performance Transportation Services (PTS), had controlled half the market. Both companies had experienced years of instability. Under the contract, PTS employees are allowed to “follow the work” to other unionized carhaul firms and maintain seniority. But many PTS Teamsters remain out of work as non-union competitors have stepped in, while others have lost seniority.

According to Ken Paff, organizer for Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the union still has clout in the industry but is not using it. “The union is willing to strike PTS to thin the herd, to stabilize the industry, but they aren’t willing to use their power to bargain to protect member standards,” Paff said.

The carhaul industry is 75 percent unionized, down from 90 percent a decade ago but still far higher than other Teamster jurisdictions.

DISAPPOINTING GIVEBACKS

Veteran carhaulers reacted strongly to the givebacks. Causing the most alarm is the elimination of load equalization, which spreads work among drivers from different locations.

“The main concern from the members was job security,” said George Warner, a former PTS driver from Lansing, Michigan, now working at Jack Cooper Transport. “Take equalization out of the contract and our job security just went down the drain.”

John Thyer, secretary-treasurer of Local 604 in St. Louis, is angry about lower wages for new hires. “I spent five weeks of my life on a picket line to stop two-tier wages,” Thyer said, referring to the 1995 carhaul strike. “Why did we give them two tier now? There won’t be 50 new carhaulers hired in the next three years. It’s because the company is planning ahead and we’re not.”

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Under the three-year agreement, new hires would start at 85 percent of full pay, with a three-year progression to full scale. Workers transferring from one company to another would work at 90 percent of scale for the first year.

The “new business” provisions will slash wages even further, according to David Dawson, a steward at Jack Cooper in Kansas City. Under previous contracts, no work qualified as new business if it had ever been handled union. Now, he said, the union is encouraging companies to use rail shipping for a year and then switch back. That work is now treated as new business—and paid at half rate indefinitely.

Dawson also expressed concern over new electronic surveillance. The contract permits companies to put tracking devices in trucks, and doesn’t restrict what they can be used for.

“If they pull my electronic device and it doesn’t match my log, they can fire me for that,” he said. “Now companies can literally pick and choose who they want working for them.”

Teamster officials pointed to the recession and flagging auto sales to justify the concessions. Sales for the first half of 2008 are down 10.1 percent from last year.

Officials also argued that concessions would help nurse unionized carhaulers back to health. Allied had already received concessions last year after a two-year stint in bankruptcy; workers narrowly approved a 17.5 percent wage cut.

Teamster officials are “hell-bent on keeping the employers in business using concessions,” Thyer said. “But look at Allied. They are in as bad a shape as ever. Concessions didn’t work for them.”

According to Thyer, the faltering economy is a point of leverage for carhaulers. “The automakers have to get their cars delivered if they want to sell them,” he said. “If nobody can cover the work then that makes us stronger, not weaker.”

The contract is expected to pass in August, when ballots will be counted.