By Rick Valliere BNA Daily Labor Report
November 20, 2006. Drivers at two separate FedEx Home Delivery terminals in Massachusetts have voted for representation by International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25, the company and union said Nov. 17.
Results of the votes conducted last month and counted by the National Labor Relations Board on Nov. 17 were 14-6 in favor of the Teamsters among 26 eligible drivers at a terminal in Wilmington, Mass., and 10-2 for the union among 14 drivers at a separate annex terminal, also in Wilmington, according to the board. Five challenged ballots in the larger unit were not sufficient to alter the outcome, the agency said.
In ordering the election in September, the board rejected the company's contention that FedEx Home Delivery drivers are independent contractors and not statutory employees. NLRB Regional Director Rosemary Pye found that the company "exercises substantial control" over working conditions and said her decision was consistent with other board rulings on the status of FedEx Home Delivery drivers (190 DLR A-6, 10/2/06 ).
The decision was the latest in a string of union victories before NLRB, the courts, the Internal Revenue Service, and state unemployment agencies agreeing that the company is improperly classifying drivers as independent contractors.
A spokesman for FedEx, Perry Colosimo, said the company will immediately file objections to the vote based on the union's "objectionable conduct," which made a fair election impossible. Colosimo said the Teamsters had failed in all but two of 46 elections at FedEx and that it no longer represents workers at the two facilities it organized in the 1980s.
Local 25 President Sean O'Brien told BNA that the union had conducted a grassroots campaign with "no disruptions" to the company. "It's their conduct that should be questioned," he said. He urged the company to "show a little bit of dignity, take it as a loss, and get to the bargaining table and bargain in good faith."
The vote count from the Oct. 20 balloting was delayed until the board dismissed the company's objections to the Sept. 20 decision calling for the vote, he said.
IBT President James Hoffa, in a statement, said the vote demonstrated that FedEx workers and the Teamsters "will not stand by idly while FedEx rakes in the profits and avoids its responsibilities to the workers and their communities by exploiting this phony independent contractor model."
FedEx Home Delivery was established in 1998 when the parent FedEx Ground acquired Roadway Package Systems Inc. Almost all of the subsidiary's drivers are classified as independent contractors, while drivers for the parent company are classified as employees.
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