Just over six months after acquiring Con-way, Employee and union leaders assembled outside an XPO Logistics shareholder meeting in Greenwich, Conn., to demand that CEO Bradley Jacobs address several concerns. In an email statement, XPO is calling it a Teamster’s publicity stunt.
XPO employees in the U.S. and Europe are upset about anti-worker actions and abuses, according to a Teamsters news release. Union leaders are claiming XPO is “mismanaging the integration of its new businesses, leading to operational and financial risks.”
“There were concerns about the company growing too fast and not being able to manage the company providing service for the workers,” said Galen Munroe, senior communications coordinator for Teamsters, during a press conference.
After acquiring Con-way, unions say port and rail drivers have experienced wage theft totaling more than $200 million as a result of their being misclassified as independent contractors. In January, a lawsuit was filed against XPO for misclassifying port drivers. The suit claimed the companies did not pay minimum wage, provide meal/rest breaks, reimburse business expenses, or pay overtime/double time wages, and committed other labor law violations. In total, the lawsuit claims violations of 10 separate labor laws.
“XPO has lost every case at every investigation by any governmental agency,” Munroe said. “They have lost every one of them and found that the workers are misclassified. What their business model has been is to negotiate a settlement and pay those drivers, but they never fix the problem.”
XPO also agreed to delay any layoffs in France for at least 18 months after acquiring Norbert Dentressangle SA last April. Union leaders claim that XPO did not honor that agreement.
“This company is not really interested in growing,” said Greg Alden, Teamsters’ freight division representative. “They are very interested in getting rid of the people there and using subcontractors.”
Earlier this year, XPO cut 190 non-driver jobs in its LTL operations. Approximately one week later, the logistics company shut down seven truck terminals in “remote areas,” according to an XPO statement.
In an interview with Bloomberg last September, Jacobs said that drivers were “very important” and XPO intended to keep all the drivers. In the U.S., all layoffs have affected administrative, management and executive offices. No known driver layoffs have occurred to date.
To date, Jacobs has declined to meet with union leaders.
The 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 75,000 freight members, including nearly 200 at XPO.
XPO sent Land Line the following statement:
This was obviously a publicity stunt by the Teamsters. We have excellent relationships with our employees and the owner-operators who serve our customers. Our drivers and the owner-operators we do business with are aware that we pay them more than their union counterparts in other companies. The Teamsters will have to look elsewhere for a way to solve their declining membership problem.
Land Line Now News Anchor Reed Black contributed to this article.
By Tyson Fisher, Land Line staff writer
By Tyson Fisher, Land Line staff writer
No comments:
Post a Comment