XPO Rebuffs Meeting Unions on Complaints
This story appears in the May 16 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Teamsters union and European labor representatives last week tried, but failed, to force a meeting with XPO Logistics Inc. CEO Bradley Jacobs to discuss union issues.
The effort was rebuffed May 11 at XPO’s annual meeting, where the union claimed a series of worker- related issues have materialized at XPO as it has grown in less than five years from a small Michigan-based express company into a $15 billion global operator.
Allegations against the company included worker misclassification, improper subcontracting, and layoffs in Europe that contradicted a promise not to reduce staff until December at former facilities of Norbert Dentressangle, which XPO bought last year.
“We wanted to bring attention to shareholders the concerns that the unions and the workers have about this company,” said Teamsters Vice President Fred Potter, who heads the port division. The union has been part of efforts to convert drayage drivers from independent contractors to employees to make them eligible for union membership.
“This is obviously a publicity stunt by the Teamsters,” said a statement from the Greenwich, Connecticut-based XPO, which ranks No. 14 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada. “We have excellent relationships with our employees and the owner-operators who serve our customers. Our drivers and the owner-operators we do business with are aware that we pay them more than their union counterparts in other companies. The Teamsters will have to look elsewhere for a way to solve their declining membership problem.”
During a series of acquisitions, XPO bought three businesses where union issues have surfaced.
Port trucking, inherited when the company acquired Pacer International, has been the focus of union-driven strikes and state and federal wage disputes linked to the organizing effort. The union in a statement claimed more than $200 million in wages are at issue for port drivers. In addition, Potter said the company has not won any legal and regulatory cases, which have resulted either in a ruling against XPO or its decision to settle disputes.
XPO didn’t respond to requests for comment on that allegation.
In the less-than-truckload business that was the largest unit of Con-way Inc., which XPO purchased in October, the union has been trying for several years to organize drivers on a terminal-by-terminal basis. The company has won all but three elections at the LTL business. XPO, which has about 300 LTL terminals, has not reached any contract agreements with workers at those three facilities.
In Europe, trade unions have staged a series of rolling strikes against XPO, asserting that the company broke its promise not to cut staffing for 18 months after buying Lyon, France-based Norbert Dentressangle in June 2015. XPO also didn’t respond to requests for comment on that assertion.
Union speakers on a conference call made it clear their effort will continue.
Potter said more strikes are planned at the port trucking business, without giving details.
“[Port drivers] are labeled as independent contractors, but there is nothing independent about them,” he said.
Ross Edwin Mason, a British XPO driver, said the action at the meeting in Greenwich, Connecticut, was “day one of the fight to deal with us as a global union. We will not be divided.”
