October 1998

Overnite workers picket NLRB over criminal hours

Memphis, Tenn.-We're in the process of negotiating a contract with Overnite Transportation. (See August-September 1998 News & Letters.) Because of all the unfavorable rulings we've gotten from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Overnite employees are going to picket them. One particular individual there, any time he hears a charge that we file-even if someone from the company came out and spit on us-finds no merit in any of our charges. We're going to picket the NLRB just because of him-John Bowders. He's anti-union, anti-anything that has to do with us. He's even been heard to say that he hates unions. It has nothing to do with the Teamsters, who are negotiating our contract. We're just a group of independent workers from Overnite Transportation.

Now, a guy can be fired for any reason and Bowders doesn't find any merit to our protest. For example, we have a category we call "HazMat" for hazardous material. If you forget to put "HazMat" in the particular spot for it on the manifest, when we say what is going on the trailer, you do need some kind of reprimand. But we've had guys fired for that. Then when people drive the forklift every day, they may have an accident. If a guy who has an accident is involved in union activity, he's fired, while others who do the same thing don't get fired. But Bowders doesn't find that this is the grossest discrimination between people involved in union activity and people who are not.

The company has a policy that after 47 hours you will receive time and a half pay for overtime. That was something they gave us after the union started to organize. They are supposed to give overtime after 40 hours. At one time you could work 75 hours and you wouldn't get it! But after saying they agree to overtime after 47 hours, Overnite came up with this cop-out waiver of your rights to get time and a half. If you didn't sign this, you wouldn't get any overtime, even though you had more seniority than the next man who was working 60 hours because he had signed the waiver.

When they get up towards 47 hours you may come in and work five hours and have to go home. Our goal is overtime after 40 hours. If they have any kind of way they can wiggle around it they will; they use every trick, every means necessary to do it to you, and at the same time they'll say, "You're our employees, you're important to us." And then they stick the knife in.

The NLRB has done nothing about this, even though it is illegal to work us more than 40 hours a week without overtime. You and I can see that something needs to be done. Maybe the picket won't solve the problem but it will let them know that we are not satisfied, we're not going to go away, and we're not going to lay down and take it.

-Black worker at Overnite

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