Teamsters Protest KeyBank at Arena

Bank Supports Labor Rights Violator Oak Harbor Freight Lines

Teamster members on strike at Oak Harbor Freight Lines protested outside of KeyArena in Seattle today. KeyBank, the corporate sponsor of KeyArena, is the main financier of Oak Harbor Freight Lines, where more than 600 Teamsters in the Northwest have been on strike for the past 12 weeks because of unfair labor practices by the company.

"We went to KeyArena to alert consumers that KeyBank doesn't want to help Washington families," said Al Hobart, Teamsters International Vice President and President of Teamsters Joint Council 28. "This bank supports the unfair labor practice strike we have at Oak Harbor, but they also cheat customers and lobby against Americans facing foreclosures."

The Consumer Federation of America reported that KeyBank uses deceptive practices to charge excessive and hidden overdraft fees. Worse, KeyBank sits on the board of several mortgage industry associations that fought to stop a Senate bill that would have prevented well over 1.2 million home foreclosures and avoided property declines of $200 billion.

"People need to know that KeyBank finances Oak Harbor Freight Lines," said Marv Deegan a retired Oak Harbor Freight employee. "Since Oak Harbor cut off our health care, I have to decide whether to eat or to pay my insurance premium. This is a terrible hardship for my family."

For the past 12 weeks, Teamster members have been walking strike lines in the Seattle area, and Portland. Soon after the strike began Oak Harbor announced they were ending the health care payments of striking workers and the retirees.

"It's cruel that any company could dump the health care of their retirees to the side of the road, but that's what Oak Harbor Freight has done," Hobart said. "And KeyBank is an equal partner with Oak Harbor in doling out hardship to families."

JC Penney Drops Oak Harbor Freight Lines as Shipper

Move Is Response To Labor Rights Violations

National retailer JC Penney has stopped using Oak Harbor Freight Lines to ship its merchandise in the western United States. This decision comes on the heels of a report by the International Labor Rights Forum, which found that Oak Harbor Freight Lines has violated international labor rights standards. Teamster members employed by Oak Harbor Freight have been on strike since Sept. 22 because of violations of federal labor laws that protect workers' rights, such as coercing and threatening employees, and making unlawful changes to working conditions.

Oak Harbor is a trucking firm headquartered in Auburn, Wash., and is one of the largest regional freight carriers in the Northwest. The report (http://www.laborrights.org/labor-rights/1863) found that:

-- African-American and female replacement employees working at Oak Harbor have suffered discrimination in their work assignments;

-- Oak Harbor's decision to permanently replace its employees was a tactic to interfere with a legitimate union's attempt to bargain a new collective agreement;

-- Oak Harbor hired a subcontractor, Jim Rexroat, who has used unethical and unlawful business practices, including deceptive hiring practices and failing to pay workers the wages they were promised; and

-- Oak Harbor's decision to eliminate health coverage for its retired employees is incompatible with the ethical principles to which the company claims to adhere.

In response to the workers' strike, now in its 12th week, the company unilaterally stopped paying for health care benefits for current workers and retirees.

Other retailers, after learning of the workers' rights violations, also fired Oak Harbor. The retailers include REI, Urban Outfitters and Gap.

"We are pleased that JC Penney has made the socially responsible decision to cease working with a company that has so blatantly violated workers' rights," said Tyson Johnson, Teamsters International Vice President and Freight Division Director. "We will continue to take our message to Oak Harbor's customers and bankers until they stop these abuses. Oak Harbor should be willing to negotiate with our workers in good faith and allow for a dignified retirement."