Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Union files objection after losing an organizing vote at UPS Freight Inc.

A group that lost a union-organizing vote at the local UPS Freight Inc. terminal has filed objections to the election, alleging improper employer conduct.

The company has denied any wrongdoing.

The Association of Parcel Workers of America filed its objections last week with the National Labor Relations Board, which conducted the election earlier this month and will investigate the allegations.

Among its objections, the association alleged that UPS Freight converted part-time employees into full-time workers, raising pay and benefits just before the election. The company also told part-time dock workers that it planned to boost the number of full-time positions in the future to influence the election’s outcome, according to the association.

UPS Freight has about 350 hourly dock workers and drivers at its Kansas City, Kan., terminal. The vote against joining the parcel workers association was 203-66.

“UPS Freight believes its employees spoke quite emphatically last week in a closed ballot on the question of third-party representation and certainly did so without any coercion by management,” said Ira Rosenfeld, a company spokesman. “If requested, UPS will file a response with the NLRB and vigorously defend any allegations of wrongdoing.”

Van Skillman, president of the parcel workers group, said he hoped another election would be held in the next six weeks. He also said the group planned to file an unfair-labor-practice complaint against UPS Freight.

Dan Hubbel, assistant director of the NLRB’s regional office, said an unfair-labor-practice complaint would be reviewed before the agency determined whether to file a charge.

This was the first election in which the parcel workers group tried to unionize UPS Freight workers, most of whom do not belong to a union. The Teamsters union represents 125 employees at a UPS Freight facility in Indianapolis.

UPS Freight formerly was Overnite Transportation Co., a trucking firm the Teamsters failed to organize through the 1990s.

No comments: