The Teamsters filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday to unionize all 13 truck drivers at an Erie, Pennsylvania, terminal of ECM Transport.
Later that day, ECM Transport terminated four employees, according to Teamsters Local 397. These four workers were involved in organizing the ECM terminal with the local Teamsters chapter, the union said. Terminating employees who organize a union is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.
ECM Transport is a subsidiary of trucking giant Werner (NASDAQ: WERN). Werner acquired an 80% stake in ECM in 2021 for $142 million. Werner generated $3.3 billion in revenue in 2022. Transport Topics ranked it as the No. 17 largest for-hire trucking company in 2022.
“Local 397 believes that these drivers were fired because they engaged in concerted protected activities and because ECM desires to discourage the other drivers from unionizing,” said Ernest Orsatti, an employment lawyer who is counsel for Local 397.
Orsatti, an attorney at the Quartini Law Group in Pittsburgh, said he will file unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board. If the regional NLRB office decides to file a complaint, a federal judge will preside over a trial that may deem this termination illegal. In that case, ECM will be forced to rehire those employees with full back pay and benefits, he said.
Neither Werner nor ECM responded to requests for comment.
Werner truck drivers in other terminals seek to unionize
ECM employees in three New Jersey terminals voted to unionize with the Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in August, representing a total of 26 workers. It’s unclear why the Pennsylvania and New Jersey ECM terminals chose different unions.
Two weeks after the vote, the UFCW filed charges with the NLRB against ECM and Werner. UFCW claimed that “workers who voted in favor of the union saw their hours reduced and regular shifts were eliminated,” FreightWaves’ John Kingston reported.
The 26 New Jersey workers and the 13 Pennsylvania workers are a slim fraction of Werner’s larger workforce. Per the Omaha, Nebraska-based carrier’s most recent annual report, Werner employs more than 14,000 people. Around 10,200 of them are truck drivers.
This effort only covers a few dozen employees so far, and unionization efforts at mega-carriers like Werner are incredibly rare. The relatively small unionization effort seems to have shaken top brass at Werner, however. As FreightWaves’ John Kingston reported in August, Werner CEO Derek Leathers made an in-person visit to those New Jersey terminals ahead of the unionization vote. He delivered a case against unionization.
Employees frustrated by drop in hours
Two ECM truck drivers based in Erie told FreightWaves before the petition to unionize that they hoped the Teamsters union could help them secure more pay and control over their working hours. Both drivers spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about the organizing efforts.
Prior to Werner’s acquisition of ECM, both drivers said it was standard to receive a $1-an-hour pay raise for each additional year of work. However, both said they have not received any pay raises since Werner bought ECM in July 2021.
What’s more, the drivers said their hours have massively dropped in recent months. That has slammed their take-home pay. At the same time, both drivers said it’s become more common to work on weekends. They said they do not receive overtime pay for weekend work.
The drivers at Erie’s ECM terminal are local drivers, meaning they are paid hourly and are home each night. Employees said they largely haul goods like agricultural commodities and paper products.
“We’re hoping that we can get a little more transparency because we’re never told anything at all,” one truck driver told FreightWaves.
Email rpremack@freightwaves.com with your viewpoint.
Casra
I drive for Werner. I promise you, if this Unionization madness unionizes Werner? My last day will be the last day of non-union Werner. I refuse to work for a Union. I refuse to be forced to give my money to a political entity that cares about the political power and top leadership. I will refuse
John S.Ruessll
All facts this company needs help
Ryan
Everything that you reported is true, Werner has not done anything for us since they bought 80%.
It wasn’t until New Jersey yards formed a union, since then things have gone south quick. Hours have been cut, workload has dropped drastically.
After 2 years now they hired this company called “work hound” to do some annoymous feedback reporting. Numerous drivers including myself have sent feedback, all we get back is automated messages wanting us to reveal our identity so they can fix issues. I talked to the vice president of Werner him self about 1.5 months ago and voiced my concerns and complaints and nothing has changed and they wonder why everyone wants to form a union.
We don’t get overtime, they take a 30 minute break after 8 hours, 30 minute break after 12 hours. The yards are ran down, the buildings they own are “drop lots, outdated, no running water, full of mold inside.
If you want the truth, that’s the truth.
R.M. Rehmer
So the great TEAMSTERS want the Werner affiliate to create work when there isn’t any work to keep their driver’s pay up to what they were making before. Someone tell me how you create work when there isn’t any. The Werner affiliate fires the individuals, and the Teamster says it is illegal under such and such act because they were trying to get the shop a Teamster shop, or is that what they want you to believe? You don’t see ECM telling anyone why they dismissed the people, and it may well not have been because they were organizing, but the teamster speaks everyone listens. Does that mean no employer whose shop is Union can fire a worker? Or does it mean you have to get the union’s permission to dismiss an employee? The Teamster is getting a little big for the pants people. To tell an employer he has no control over his employees is wrong on many different levels. The teamsters do not pay the employees salary or hourly pay. Plus, if they can’t get the freight to move, you are going to let the employee sit around and do nothing, so he is taking home the same pay that he always has. Unionization isn’t always the answer; ask the workers from Caterpillar. When they unionized, they lost benefits, not gain them. Plus, you end up having Union management tell you what you’re going to do, period. I have been on both sides, a teamster member and a company trying to deal with the teamsters. Union promised you a rose garden but forgot to tell you about all the thorns that go with it. Union making the pitch always has a real motive behind it, and that motive isn’t always in the worker’s favor. Union has become too political and very social. I am sure they would love to see the WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA. you know, just like all the rest of the communist countries
Don Coleman
Werner violated The law. Now these units will be unionized. They should have let them vote one way or the other. I’m a retired Teamster best thing I ever did.
Greg
Things are slow this happens when slowdowns occur.
Sean Stewart
From my experience with over 700 thousand miles of truck driving with a class A CDL over the last 18 years, it is clear that truck driving is nothing more than a
Minimum wage job. To prove it just take WA state minimum wage 15.74 x 40 and then add overtime based on that rate. You only end up with a little over 1300 a week. And that’s assuming you get paid for 70 hours. I can make more money doing math tutoring at 30 hours a week. No wonder trucking firms can’t keep drivers. Just work at taco bell or any other fast food place. Seems like drivers only way to stand and fight is to walk off the job. Let’s see if they can solve this with autonomous trucks.
Jeff Anderson
Remember the yellow drivers. 23,000 Teamster drivers still looking for work. Go with the UAW.