DHL switch cuts 40 jobs

DIMONDALE, Michigan - A switch in local contractors by shipping company DHL has left nearly 40 local union members unemployed.

The Dimondale facility also has 60 members unpaid for their last two weeks of work, an official for Teamsters Local 580 said Wednesday.

The dispute is the latest in a series of disagreements between the Teamsters and former DHL contractor American Commercial Finance Inc. of Plymouth.

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Union officials had threatened a strike late last year over the status of the local's first contract with American Commercial. Union leaders thought those issues were settled, Teamsters Local 580 Secretary-Treasurer George Warner said.

But he said 60 of his local's American Commercial workers were fired April 21. Three days later, Warner said, they were told they wouldn't be paid for their last 80 hours of work.

"It gets frustrating," he said. "You go and do what's right by workers and then this happens to them."

American Commercial officials could not be reached for comment. An automated message Wednesday said the phone number listed for the company's headquarters had been disconnected.

DHL, which is owned by Germany's Deutsche Post AG and has its U.S. base in Florida, replaced American Commercial with two "more financially sound courier companies" on April 24, spokesman Richard Gibbs said.

A Michigan court judgement against American Commercial endangered the contractor's ability to fulfill its work for DHL, Gibbs said.

The Teamsters local has filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against American Commercial and DHL over the matter, Warner said.

DHL's Gibbs said disputes over the payments "involve only the outgoing contractor and his employees."

The new contractors hired about 27 of the Teamsters workers, Warner said, but at wages about $5 per hour less than the $15 per hour their former union contract called for.

Talks of holding an informational picket were canceled late Wednesday.