Overnite Alleges Union Smear
The fight over union representation at Overnite Transportation Co. took several dramatic turns last week, with the company filing defamation lawsuits against the Teamsters and its principal organizer, David O. Cameron, and a federal judge denying a request for a temporary restraining order to stop rail workers from joining a threatened Teamsters strike against the carrier.
The defamation suit, filed in Texas state court, alleges that the Teamsters falsely claimed that Overnite had been found guilty by the National Labor Relations Board of hundreds of labor law violations, that the board had issued more than a thousand complaints and that the company had been forced to pay tens of millions of dollars as a result of alleged wrongdoing.
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The union also accepted Overnite’s challenge for a single vote on unionization, but added conditions that the company quickly rejected.
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The statements, made in campaign literature, posted on the union’s Web site and distributed to Overnite customers in Texas, harmed Overnite’s reputation, company officials said.
