Teamsters tie up with Staten Island Amazon union, win other elections

The Teamsters union has recorded several organizing or contract-signing victories in the past few weeks, but a step it has taken toward representing at least one group of Amazon workers has garnered the biggest headlines. 

An independent labor union that won representation at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse in 2022, a victory that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is fighting, has agreed to come under the umbrella of the Teamsters, according to media reports. The Teamsters posted an announcement about the agreement on the company’s X (formerly Twitter) feed.

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is the grassroots organization that won a 2022 vote to unionize more than 8,000 workers at a giant Amazon facility in Staten Island. Efforts by national labor unions at other Amazon facilities have failed; the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union is seeking a third election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. 

The tie-up between the Teamsters and the ALU, announced Tuesday, needs to be ratified by the more than 8,000 rank-and-file members before becoming official.

The ALU has not been able to sign a contract with Amazon, which is fighting a legal battle against the union on several fronts.

There also have been multiple reports of strife within the union, which failed in an organizing vote at another Amazon warehouse on Staten Island soon after its victory. The ALU win in its first Staten Island vote remains the only time a union has won a representation election at an Amazon facility.

Local union needs a big ally

Harry Katz, a professor at Cornell University and the president of the International Labor and Employment Relations Association, told FreightWaves that the ALU had preliminary discussions with the Teamsters about some sort of affiliation soon after it was elected but that the talks fell short.

The advice and guidance the ALU is getting as an independent union “doesn’t compare to the know-how and resources that the Teamsters has,” Katz said.

Given the extensive use of outside transportation companies Amazon uses, some of them with companies whose drivers have Teamsters representation, “what the Teamsters potentially provides is leverage against Amazon,” Katz said.

While mounting some sort of secondary boycott is illegal, Katz said, the Teamsters may be able to find a way to “hassle” the online retailer.

But it still will be a challenging battle. Although the ALU was voted in by the rank and file, that only mandates that Amazon bargain in “good faith.” “It’s very hard to ever reach a first contract because the law merely requires Amazon to bargain in good faith,” Katz said. “It doesn’t require that the parties reach agreement.”

But with the Teamsters-ALU tie-up, Katz said it will need to be determined “whether the union at Amazon, affiliated with the Teamsters, can generate enough bargaining leverage to convince Amazon to sign its first agreement.”

Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Labor Education Research and a senior lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, described Amazon as “aggressive as an employer opposed to unions as you can get.” She added that fact “doesn’t mean the union can’t win, but it takes something much more than a one-local site can do.”

Ratification by the members of the ALU, she said, is “not a slam dunk.”

3 wins in the field

While the affiliation with the ALU may be the Teamsters story that has gotten the most attention, the more mundane work of organizing workers and signing contracts was positive in May for the union. 

A list of contract representation votes from the National Labor Relations Board records three successful Teamsters organization elections certified by the NLRB in recent weeks.  

One of them is at 10 Roads Express, where the Teamsters last year successfully organized workers in Iowa and Nebraska. The company is primarily a contract carrier for the U.S. Postal Service.

In the latest election at the Greensboro, North Carolina, facility of 10 Roads, according to NLRB data, 42 votes were cast in favor of representation while 13 were cast in opposition. The election covers all full-time and regular part-time route drivers employed at the site, according to the NLRB.

In a statement celebrating the victory, the Teamsters said the vote was the latest step in a broader effort to unionize drivers at the company.

The Teamsters said the North Carolina victory brings its record to having unionized more than 300 workers at 10 Roads facilities in Colorado and New Jersey, as well as the North Carolina and Midwest successes.

“The Teamsters’ victory in Greensboro will give us an even stronger foundation for more organizing at 10 Roads,” John A. Murphy, Teamsters national freight director, said in the prepared statement. “Our message to 10 Roads drivers everywhere is that the Teamsters are here to help you win what’s yours. This latest win further solidifies the Teamsters’ presence at 10 Roads and expands the growing movement among drivers to demand their rights and secure a better workplace.”

Other victories recently certified by the NLRB were for smaller groups of workers. 

At Performance Team Logistics, a subsidiary of Maersk (DKK: MAERSK-B.CO), a vote in May saw 14 votes in favor of unionization with Teamsters Local 179. Three votes were cast in opposition.

NLRB described the pool of voters as all full-time and part-time drivers at Performance’s Elwood, Illinois facility.

A spokeswoman for Maersk said Performance Team “owns and operates trucks and electric vehicles in various locations across the United States.” She added that there is unionization at other Performance Team facilities.

There are 19 workers impacted by the vote, she said. “While we prefer to work directly with our employees without the presence of a third party, we respect each employee’s right to make their own decision about whether to vote for a union,” the spokeswoman said.

The NLRB also recently certified a victory for Teamsters Local 481 at Penske Truck Leasing in El Centro, California. The good news for the Teamsters was that the vote was unanimous. But the grand total of votes was three. It covers maintenance technicians.

The Teamsters does not always announce local victories. But it does frequently highlight contract signings and has done so recently.

Contract signed at a Ryder outlet

The union’s workers at several Ryder Truck Rental (NYSE: R) facilities in Minnesota, represented by Local 974, have ratified a three-year contract that calls for a 14.5% increase in pay over the life of the deal. There are also benefit improvements for the 43 workers covered by the contract. They include more vacation time and strike protections.

Unionization is widespread at Ryder. In the company’s 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for this year, Ryder said the company has 98 separate labor agreements. Its workers are primarily represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters.

A Ryder spokeswoman confirmed the new deal and the size of the wage increase.

Representatives from 10 Roads and the Teamsters had not responded to FreightWaves’ queries by publication time.

More articles by John Kingston

Teamsters rack up late-2023 wins, stage significant strike in ’24

Teamsters out at Southern California trucking company; other votes mixed

Why Teamsters is willing to sacrifice 22,000 union trucking jobs

The post Teamsters tie up with Staten Island Amazon union, win other elections appeared first on FreightWaves.

Source: freightwaves - Teamsters tie up with Staten Island Amazon union, win other elections
Editor: John Kingston