Labor board moves to collect fines against courier

The National Labor Relations Board is moving forward to collect thousands of dollars in penalties from a Virginia Beach subcontractor for transporter DHL Express.


The labor board registered its case against Tap Express Inc. this week in U.S. District Court here – a step to enforce more than $20,000 in fines stemming from a finding of the company’s illegal anti-union activities.

According to case documents issued by the NLRB, Tap Express in the summer of 2004 illegally intimidated workers interested in unionizing under Teamsters Local 822, one of the largest unions in Hampton Roads.

Tap Express is a courier service that shared space with DHL Express at the larger company’s Virginia Beach facility and its contract work topped $50,000 in 2004, the NLRB said.

According to records on the NLRB Web site, Tap Express owner Monica Broadnax told employees in June 2004 that they could not have a union and created the impression that their union activities were under surveillance. Broadnax also warned employees that “there would soon be a lot of new faces and a lot of change,” the NLRB said.

Broadnax later interrogated workers in the DHL parking lot, asking them about their union membership, activities and sympathies, according to the filings. Then, Tap Express fired four workers within about a week for their union leanings.

“I proved that it was because of union activities,” James Wright, president of Local 822, said of the firings. He added that the company has about 20 employees.

Broadnax declined to comment when reached at her home this week.

The National Labor Relations Act bars employers from discriminating in hiring and employment in order to discourage membership in unions. Employers also cannot interfere with organizing activities nor coerce employees who are seeking union affiliation.

Local 822 filed charges in fall 2004, and the NLRB issued a formal complaint Dec. 22, 2004. Tap Express reached an informal agreement with Local 822, which required back pay and reinstatement offers for fired employees. It also called for the company to delete references to discipline of union activities in personnel files. But the company repeatedly failed to hold up its end of the agreement, the NLRB determined. The agency issued a formal order, which was approved March 6 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond.

Tap Express was ordered to stop questioning employees about union affiliation, threatening firings on those grounds, coercing employees and targeting them for drug testing because of union support. The company was also mandated to pay $20,000 plus interest to the NLRB to be disbursed to six employees who were illegally fired or suspended.

Wright said he told Broadnax at the time that her company would run afoul of regulators for union-busting.

“I was saying, 'Look, you’re going to get in trouble with this,’” Wright said. “'You’ve got to bring those workers back.’”

DHL is not involved in the legal proceedings, spokesman Richard Gibbs said in a statement. “Neither allegations nor findings have been made against DHL,” he said.

Gibbs said that DHL employs more than 10,000 Teamsters. The company allows independent contractors such as Tap Express to use DHL-branded uniforms and trucks.

The Teamsters succeeded in organizing Tap Express a year ago, Wright said.