Feds set to order DHL rehires Union claims win for Maine workers

BREWER – Claiming victory in their dispute with DHL contractor Rydbom Express, union officials said Friday that federal labor regulators will order Rydbom to hire back 11 former drivers who lost their jobs in March.

The federal National Labor Relations Board is expected to issue a complaint against Rydbom sometime within the next week, representatives of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ state and national offices said Friday. Gov. John Baldacci and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap were among the 40 or so people who were on hand as the announcement was made Friday afternoon in front of the local DHL office on Parkway South.

The issuance of a complaint will require Lancaster, Pa.-based Rydbom to hire back the 11 former drivers who have been picketing the DHL office since March, Teamsters officials said.

“The board will issue a complaint,” said James Carson, president of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland. “It’s been a long time since labor had a big victory like this. It’s a big, big, big story coming out of a small state.”

Roughly 50 drivers for Black Bear Courier in Brewer and Presque Isle lost their jobs when the Orono-based company lost its contract with DHL after they voted in January to join Teamsters Local 340. According to an amended complaint filed Monday with the NLRB Boston office, when DHL hired Rydbom to take over its Brewer operations, the independent contractor “interrogated prospective employees regarding their union activity, threatened prospective employees, made statements that unionization is futile [and] created an impression of surveillance.”

Of the 25 drivers in Presque Isle and 23 in Brewer who lost their jobs, one in Presque Isle and 11 in Brewer did not get rehired or find work elsewhere, Carson has said.

In March, Teamsters officials filed a charge against Rydbom with NLRB, claiming the company’s behavior violated federal labor laws. The Teamsters did not file a charge against Granite State Express, the Portsmouth, N.H. company DHL hired to deliver its packages in the Presque Isle area.

Gov. Baldacci compared the apparent union victory to watching paper mill workers return to work after their employers had declared bankruptcy.

“This isn’t the way things are done in our state,” Baldacci said of Rydbom’s actions. “Our most important job [as public officials] is to make sure they have their jobs.”

Bret Caldwell, director of communications for the Teamsters’ national office, said the victory in Brewer is the first anywhere in the country involving independent contractors hired to deliver packages for the global shipping giant. DHL, which has a large international operation and recently expanded its domestic presence by buying Airborne Express, is bigger than shipping rivals UPS and FedEx, he said.

“This is not the only case where DHL has an independent contractor whose workers have chosen us as a union,” Caldwell said. “This victory is the first in what we anticipate will be a string of victories.”

Teamsters officials have said that though the drivers technically are not DHL employees, DHL bears some responsibility for their situation. The workers drive DHL vehicles and wear DHL uniforms, union officials have pointed out.

Richard Gibbs of DHL’s public affairs office said Friday that the dispute is strictly between Rydbom, the Teamsters and NLRB. It is not related in any way to DHL, he said.

“DHL does not tell the independent contractor who it can or cannot hire,” Gibbs said. “We don’t hire people who don’t abide by the letter of the law.”

The overwhelming criteria DHL follows for hiring independent contractor, he said, is service and price, not whether an independent contractor is regarded as union-friendly.

According to Caldwell, the Teamsters represent 1,700 of the 10,000 employees who work for independent companies contracted with DHL. It also represents 10,000 DHL employees who used to work for Airborne Express, he said.

The union has been working nationwide to unionize other employees of DHL contractors, according to Caldwell.

“We’ve been working on the campaign for about a year,” he said.

Attempts Friday afternoon to contact Rydbom Express owner Doug Rydbom and NLRB officials were unsuccessful.

Arnold Graham of Eddington, who has delivered DHL packages out of Brewer for 12 years, said Friday that he is relieved the dispute appears to be resolved. Graham, an Air Force veteran and a registered Republican, said his wife and two sons at first were nervous when he was out of work. He was able to help support his family by working at the Maine Air National Guard base in Bangor two days a week, he said, but other unionized drivers and their families had to find extra employment to get by.

“We don’t want conflict with anyone in this building,” he said, gesturing toward the DHL office. “We just want our jobs back.”

Graham said he thanks the Teamsters, Gov. Baldacci and politicians from both sides of the political aisle who supported him and other drivers while they picketed the DHL office.

“There was snow out here on the ground when we started,” Graham said. “We’re excited about getting back to work. I can’t wait to see my customers again.”