XPO Logistics-Teamsters Battleground Shifts to New Haven

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is duking it out with XPO Logistics on a new front recently after 73 employees petitioned to remove Local 443 in New Haven, Conn., as their representative.

According to an XPO spokesman, the company withdrew recognition of the Teamsters as a result of the application, and the employees are no longer unionized.

“Our employees recognize that by working together, we continue to create a culture that values people and delivers results,” the company said in a statement to Transport Topics.

According to a Teamsters spokesman, the decertification petition occurred because XPO’s behavior after the union election.

“The workers and the local union were forced to file numerous unfair labor practices charges with the [National Labor Relations Board]. These ULPs were filed before the decertification petition and address several issues including failure to bargain in good faith and management involvement in the decertification campaign,” the union responded in a statement. “We anticipate winning these charges and the company being required by the government to return to the table.”

It marks the latest development in a contentious battle between the union and the warehousing, logistics, less-than-truckload and drayage provider.

Elections have taken place at XPO locations across the United States, some of which have gone for the union and others against it. The Teamsters also has waged an aggressive campaign against the treatment of the independent contractors working at XPO Drayage, serving the ports. The company has said that many of their independent contractors serving U.S. ports do so by choice, preferring the freedoms that the relationship provides under the law.