DHL Express has reached a tentative deal with ramp workers at its Cincinnati air hub, ending a 12-day strike and sympathy action by Teamsters members at other locations across the United States that caused parcel delays during the busy gift-giving season.
The Teamsters union announced Tuesday that negotiators tentatively settled a dispute over a new contract. Striking workers at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) are working their regular shifts Tuesday, said union spokeswoman Kara Deniz.
Front-line DHL employees must still approve the deal struck by their leadership. No ratification date has been set yet.
Terms of the contract were not released but included improvements on workplace safety, higher pay and better benefits, according to a Teamsters news release.
About 1,100 CVG ground operations staff in April joined Teamsters Local 100, which began talks on an initial contract in July. The union accused DHL Express of not addressing safety hazards that led to injuries, underpaying workers and unlawfully attempting to prevent union organizing. It filed dozens of unfair-labor-practice reports with the National Labor Relations Board.
“Picket lines established by Teamsters Local 100 were honored and held down all over this country, making clear to DHL and employers everywhere that Teamsters solidarity is a force to be reckoned with,” said union President Sean O’Brien. “DHL tried hard to divide us. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters stepped up and fought back. This tentative agreement is a testament to the intestinal fortitude of the rank-and-file.”
After talks broke off on Dec. 7, DHL officials said they would not return to collective bargaining until January.
Last summer, O’Brien was able to win a new contract for 340,000 UPS package sorters and drivers hours before a potentially damaging Teamsters strike was scheduled to start.
DHL Express rerouted some freighter aircraft and reassigned other workers to mitigate the effects of the 12-day work stoppage, but some shipments were still disrupted. The expansion of the work stoppage to other locations in a show of support for the CVG workers led to undelivered packages piling up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Boeing Field, according to local KOMO News.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.