Labor Pool: A Victory That's Less Than Sweet
Teamsters Local 170 just won a big victory in Northborough. The National Labor Relations Board found that FedEx Home Delivery harassed or fired six drivers who wanted to join the Worcester-based union. It ordered the company to pay the truckers a total of more than $253,000 and set a February date for a union election.
So why is Michael P. Hogan, the secretary-treasurer of the union local, not smiling? Well, he expects the company to do a good job making sure the drivers don't end up holding union cards.
"We're pretty fearful, just based on their past actions," he said.
Hogan said the company's response to unionizing drives is typically to hold mandatory anti-union meetings, and that the firing of four drivers that helped get them in trouble with the NLRB is not unusual either.
"They'll do it again," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind."
Hard-Driving Bargain
Meanwhile, FedEx spokesman Robert Boulware doesn't want to discuss how the company communicates with drivers regarding unionizing, but he thinks the whole discussion is missing the point.
To FedEx, drivers are not employees but independent contractors, so it makes no sense to talk about them joining a union. The NLRB has disagreed with that analysis, accepting the union argument that the Northborough drivers receive too much direction from the company to be considered anything except employees, but Boulware thinks it may end up changing its mind.
"The findings were inconsistent with previous decisions by state and federal agencies regarding independent contractors," he said.
Even if the drivers vote in favor of a union, Hogan expects FedEx to refuse to sit down and negotiate a contract. He said that's what they've done after truckers unionized in Wilmington and Hartford, Conn.
Boulware said the company's refusal to negotiate is simply a legal necessity.
"Refusing to bargain is the only legal way for the company to get a court review of the NLRB's decision," he said.
But to Hogan, the company's actions reflect the near impossibility of making a deep-pocketed company accept a union that it really wants to avoid.
"Sadly our country is very, very weak when it comes to standing up for the hardworking men and women," he said.
Hogan said he sees little hope for unionization efforts at companies like FedEx without federal legislation to make organizing simpler. And that's not likely under the current president.
Still, Hogan argues he's not the least bit pessimistic. He says the difficult situation labor finds itself in could be just the spark that's needed to change the political climate.
"Thank God we have an election in 2008," he said. "The future has never been brighter for labor. The middle class and working men and women have never needed unions more than today."
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