DHL: Labor woes not company’s fault

A group of laid-off workers demonstrating Monday outside an office building in Brewer wore DHL jackets and carried signs that blamed DHL for their job losses, but apparently were targeting the wrong employer, DHL’s director of corporate communications said Tuesday.

DHL, a global shipping company that rivals Fed Ex and UPS, operates nearly 60 percent of its business through independent contractors, including its operations in Maine, according to Jonathan Baker at DHL.

It is those contractors, not DHL, who have responsibility for the employees, he said.

“These companies operate under a trademark license agreement with DHL, which allows them to wear DHL-branded uniforms and drive DHL-branded trucks,” Baker said. “However, these contractors remain independent with a separate employee base, and the only relationship between DHL and these companies is the fact that they perform certain services per their contract with DHL.”

One of these contractors, Black Bear Couriers, Inc., had operated in Brewer and Presque Isle for more than 10 years under a contract with DHL.

Recently, though, Black Bear failed to negotiate a new contract with DHL and a new contractor, Rydbom Express of Pennsylvania, took over Monday.

As a result, 23 workers in Bangor and 25 in Presque Isle were laid off by Black Bear. The displaced employees had the opportunity to apply for jobs with Rydbom Express, but only six were rehired.

Many of those laid-off workers, who in January had joined the Teamsters union Local 340 based in South Portland, gathered in protest Monday outside the building on Parkway South in Brewer where Black Bear had run its operation.

Teamster political coordinator James Cook said that even though Black Bear Courier technically employed the workers, DHL failed to accept responsibility and the Teamsters stand behind their discontent for DHL.

“What does it say on the jackets and on the trucks?” Cook asked Tuesday. “[DHL] has 369 of these contractors that they can get to pay workers $10 an hour with no benefits.”

DHL’s use of independent contractors in the shipping industry is quite common, Baker said.

The Teamsters filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, claiming last week’s layoffs were unlawful and that the displaced employees were singled out for their affiliation with the union.

Baker maintained that any dispute between the workers and Black Bear – or the new contractor, Rydbom Express – has nothing to do with DHL or with organized labor.

“We understand this to have been a business decision on the part of [Black Bear Couriers] that is unrelated to any union activity,” Baker said.

Additionally, 40 percent of DHL’s actual workers – employees not hired through independent contractors – are affiliated with the Teamsters and the relationship has been amicable for several years, Baker said.

A representative from Black Bear Couriers, Inc. could not be reached Tuesday for comment.