Teamsters get the boot at Miami-area XPO Logistics facility

Workers at the XPO Logistics Haileah, Fla., facility have voted to oust the local Teamsters union as their exclusive collective bargaining representative.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 769 voted 61-34 to decertify union representation, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Votes were tallied June 21. Those voting included full-time and part-time drivers, sales representatives and dock workers employed at the facility in the Miami metropolitan area.

Teamsters Local 760 became the collective bargaining representative at the Haileah facility in December 2014. At that time, it was part of Con-Way Freight. XPO Logistics acquired Con-Way Freight in 2015.

The Teamsters had negotiated a labor contract at the Haileah facility that was approved by workers in July 2021. It was the first time the Teamsters had established representation at XPO – one of the top three largest LTL carriers in the nation.

Even though the union negotiated collective bargaining agreements at the facility, employees were not required to pay union dues because Florida is a right-to-work state.

XPO employee Martin Garcia led the push to decertify the Teamsters, according to a news release from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The organization reports it supplied free legal assistance to the union decertification effort.

“Teamsters officials didn’t listen to us and didn’t represent our interests in the workplace,” Garcia said, according to a National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation news release. “My coworkers and I decided that the best way forward was to vote them out, and we’re glad we could get legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation in exercising our rights.”

The foundation also has assisted the Teamster decertification in votes at XPO facilities in Cinnaminson, N.J.; Los Angeles; and Albany, N.Y. No contracts had been negotiated at those facilities.

Teamsters battling on several fronts

The union has been involved in several disputes with various companies in recent months.

The Teamsters are embroiled in a dispute with Yellow Corp., which is working to restructure its eastern operations. Yellow has sued the union for blocking the restructuring. That battle reminded Land Line columnist John Bendel of the union battle in 2002 at Consolidated Freightways that ended abruptly for employees.

A congressional oversight committee also has been critical of a $700 million loan that Yellow got through federal COVID-19 bailout program under the Trump administration. Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien laid into Yellow over the issue.

The Teamsters reached a tentative contract with ABF Freight System in June.

The union also is negotiating with TForce Freight, formerly UPS Freight, for a new national agreement to succeed the current agreement expiring July 31. LL

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