DHL Express has activated contingency plans to keep delivering packages without interruption in the event ramp and tug workers at its North American air hub near Cincinnati go on strike as contract negotiations continue this week.
The Teamsters, which represents more than 1,100 DHL employees who load and unload freighters at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), announced Sunday that members overwhelmingly authorized leadership to call a work stoppage if there isn’t progress on demands for better pay and safety and an end to unfair labor practices.
DHL Express is lining up supplemental staff at CVG and temporarily moving flights and volume away from its hub to regional terminals throughout the Americas to prevent shipping delays. In the United States, DHL also has large airport sort centers in Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles and New York.
“We are confident these prudent and proactive measures will ensure we maintain our high level of delivery standards and performance for our customers in their most critical peak period of the year. We expect no disruption to service,” the parcel logistics unit of Germany’s Deutsche Post Group said in a statement.
Workers voted in April to join Teamsters Local 100 after a yearlong campaign and began collective bargaining for their first contract in July.
The union claims DHL management is dragging its feet on a deal and that its proposals are “insulting.” It has repeatedly called out DHL for alleged hardball tactics at the negotiating table, denying Local 100 officials access to members and safety violations. Last year, there were at least 22 workplace injuries at CVG that required transport to a hospital or emergency room, according to the Teamsters.
Safety hazards listed by the union in a recent online petition include:
- Inadequate lighting for unloading planes at night, forcing workers to use their cellphone lights or buy non-DHL equipment like headlamps.
- Faded striping for guiding tugs on the taxiway.
- Tugs with faulty windshield wipers and engine cover latches.
- Exhaust fumes leaking into tug cabs.
“Equipment is so poorly maintained that there is free-for-all at the start of shifts among staff trying to get the working equipment. DHL consistently disregards or encourages employees to violate its own policy regarding safety and communication among crews pushing out planes. We often don’t have the minimally required number of headsets for crews to communicate with our colleagues or the pilots. Some crews do not have headsets at all. Those headsets that do exist are often dysfunctional,” the petition said.
Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board is prosecuting before an administrative judge claims of harassment, intimidation and retaliation, including threats of being terminated for wearing union insignia on safety vests, surveillance of workers talking to union organizers in public settings and dismissing some employees involved in the organizing effort.
“Our members are fed up with the company’s stall tactics. The members have voted and are prepared to walk. DHL will not get away with denying working people good wages and safe conditions on the job,” said Bill Davis, president of Local 100, on Sunday.
The Teamsters union represents 6,000 workers at DHL across the country, raising the possibility that they could withhold their services in solidarity with the CVG team.
Unions in the U.S. are feeling emboldened after labor shortages during the pandemic strengthened their hand and with a pro-labor administration in Washington. One of the biggest contract wins this year was at UPS, where the Teamsters won generous pay increases and upgrades to package cars for 340,000 part- and full-time workers on the eve of a strike deadline. Autoworkers and Hollywood writers went on strike and achieved most of their goals. Airline pilots, railroad workers and West Coast longshoremen have all seen big hikes in pay and benefits over the past year.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is now training his guns on organizing workers at Amazon.
A year ago, ground workers at Amazon Air’s superhub at CVG began a campaign to form a union. Workers there have complained they are paid far less than counterparts at DHL’s facility. Organizers are pushing for a $30 per hour wage and improved health benefits. At Amazon’s West Coast air hub in San Bernardino, California, warehouse workers are demanding a $25 starting wage.
The DHL talks are scheduled to continue through Thursday, with the company saying it is ready to return to the bargaining table in January.
“While it is unfortunate the Teamsters have decided to increase the external rhetoric and communicate inaccuracies around the status of these CVG hub negotiations, we have consistently sought to bargain in good faith and to find constructive solutions at the negotiating table. Their latest decision was anticipated and a situation for which we are fully prepared,” the DHL statement read. “DHL Express remains committed to working with the Teamsters and agreeing to a contract for the portion of the CVG employees they represent. … Our customers should remain confident in our ability to provide the excellent service they expect and require.”
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.