THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230585
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A battle between Overnite Transportation Co. and the Teamsters union has hit Chesapeake, where 90 Overnite workers will vote on union representation next Friday.
Teamsters Local 822 is pushing to unionize the Chesapeake terminal run by Richmond-based Overnite, one of the nation's largest non-union trucking companies.
``This is a very pivotal campaign here,'' said Ron Joseph, who is organizing Chesapeake drivers for the Teamsters. ``If we're successful here, it could set the tone for the whole state.''
Norfolk-based Local 822 has about 1,600 members in South Hampton Roads and on the Peninsula. Joseph and Local 822 President David Vinson are using higher wages and better benefits as selling points, but Joseph said he's not touting the union as a cure-all.
``If you're organized into a union, we can't undo every wrong that has happened to you for not being organized,'' he said. ``We have information showing that when people have a contract, their wages, working conditions and benefits are considerably better than non-union.''
Overnite, a $1.4 billion subsidiary of Union Pacific Corp., operates 173 terminals nationwide with more than 14,000 employees. Workers at eight of those terminals have voted for union representation, but Overnite has yet to agreeto a contract with the Teamsters at any of its operations.
In fact, Overnite spokeswoman Molly Remes said that workers at one of the company's suburban Chicago terminals voted for representation in 1983 but are still without a contract.
``We won't agree to a contract that's going to hurt us competitively,'' she said. ``Our customers in many places have been very vocal about not wanting to do business with a union carrier.''
Overnite attracted much attention during the April 1994 Teamsters strike against 22 freight companies. With the unionized carriers shut down, Overnite was swamped with business. Union members thought that Overnite was aiming to permanently take away their work, but Remes said that the strike didn't work to the Richmond company's advantage, either.
``We were just oversaturated in trying to please too many customers for our number of employees,'' she said.
Joseph and Vinson said that Overnite has reacted to the Teamsters' campaign by trying to make up for lost time by increasing wages. Overnite's hourly workers have received a $1.05 increase recently, with a 55-cent boost coming just this month.
``What's sort of funny about this,'' Remes said, ``is in earlier campaigns, one of the things they felt is that Overnite workers were not paid as well as union truckers. Now they're upset that we've given a raise.''
Joseph said that he's not upset about the raise.
``Already, we've done something to make a difference - Overnite has raised its wages $1.05,'' he said. ``So when they go out to undercut the union freight carriers, they've got another $1.05 in fixed costs.'' ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
by CNB