Overnite to Appeal NLRB decision

Overnite Transportation Co. will appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals a split National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision to order the company to bargain with the Teamsters in four locations where the company has contested the results of elections occurring in 1995 and 1996. The company said that under NLRB law, employees in Detroit, Mich. Bowling Green and Lexington, Ky. and Buffalo, N.Y. should

Tim Parry

March 14, 2001

The company said that under NLRB law, employees in Detroit, Mich. Bowling Green and Lexington, Ky. and Buffalo, N.Y. should be given a new election since they are the “victims of a widespread campaign of violence and intimidation.”

Overnite submitted uncontested evidence that the ongoing strike against the company initiated by the Teamsters in October 1999 has been plagued with serious, premeditated violence and other intimidation, and that action had invalidated the board's prior recognition of the Teamsters as their bargaining agent at the four centers.

The Teamsters strike against Overnite has gained little support among company employees, with more than 95% ignoring the union's call to walk off the job, company spokesman Ira Rosenfeld said. At the four facilities affected by the NLRB's ruling, 11 of 422 employees are honoring the union's picket lines.