KUTZTOWN, Pa. — UPS Freight is fighting a bid by the Teamsters to unionize about 30 truck drivers at a Kutztown distribution center that services Advance Auto Parts stores.
Workers voted by mail to join the Allentown-based Teamsters Local 773 by a vote of 27-1, union President Dennis Hower said. UPS has appealed the election, which was certified Feb. 1 by the National Labor Relations Board.
UPS Freight, based in Virginia, had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in January, requesting an in-person manual ballot election, which the board rejected.
The facility is one of nine Advance Auto Parts warehouses that UPS services. Drivers at the Kutztown facility deliver to Advance Auto Parts stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and typically complete their routes in one shift, returning their trucks to the depot at the end of each workday.
The company offered to hold manual elections on two different schedules and to arrange shifts so that all drivers would have a chance to vote, but the board rejected that approach.
UPS unsuccessfully fought the union's effort to unionize only the Kutztown shipping operation, saying the election should include truckers at its other eight distribution centers. According to NLRB documents, the Kutztown shipping center had employed 70 drivers until November 2014, when the company shifted some routes to a Connecticut distribution center.
Hower declined further comment because the election is being litigated. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
