Ex-workers petition DHL to get jobs back

BREWER – A group of former DHL employees, holding a petition signed by the governor that asks for their jobs back, entered the DHL office Monday on Parkway South and demanded to be heard.

After waiting a minute and asking rather loudly if “anyone was home,” a man surfaced from behind the counter, wearing a yellow and red DHL shirt with a long-sleeve white shirt underneath.

The man took the petition and, after adjusting his collar, told the group that he would turn over the stack of papers to DHL officials.

A total of 23 union employees in Brewer and 25 in Presque Isle lost their jobs in March when the contract with Black Bear Couriers Inc. of Orono was not renewed. Black Bear had a contract with DHL and operated in Brewer and Presque Isle for more than 10 years.

Problems arose just days after DHL workers employed by Black Bear voted and were accepted into the Teamsters Local 340, based in South Portland, union officials are saying.

Two days after the workers were accepted into the union, Black Bear failed to negotiate a new contract with DHL, and Rydbom Express of Pennsylvania took over as the new contractor.

Union leaders say that the contract switching is a union-busting technique.

“That’s wrong,” Rep. Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, said Monday at a press gathering.

Fischer said he would do all he could to let leaders in the state House of Representatives know of the union dispute.

DHL company officials maintain that the dispute is between the workers and the contractors, either Black Bear or Rydbom Express, and has nothing to do with DHL.

Attempts to reach a DHL spokesman and Rydbom Express owner Doug Rydbom were unsuccessful.

Arnie Graham, a former DHL employee who worked for the company for 12 years, presented the petition, signed by Gov. John Baldacci, U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, Secretary of State Mathew Dunlop, 25 other state senators and representatives and hundreds of Maine residents.

“It’s really about the principle,” said Graham, adding that he would just like to go back to his old job delivering packages in the Farmington area.

The petition demands “immediate rehiring and making whole all employees who worked at DHL when Rydbom assumed ownership on March 21.” The governor signed the petition during a May 1 event held in Brewer to support the displaced workers.

“Firing workers without just cause is an affront to our community,” the petition to DHL states. “We call on you to do the right thing.”

A second petition, called a business alliance by organizers, was signed by 32 businesses in support of the union and also was given Monday to the DHL office employee in Brewer.

The Teamsters filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in April claiming the layoffs were unlawful and that the displaced employees were singled out for their affiliation with the union. The group expects a response within the next month.

Many of the laid-off workers have gathered outside the Brewer DHL office to protest losing their jobs over the last eight weeks.

“This is not a political issue; it’s about democratic rights,” Teamsters political coordinator James Cook said Monday.