Phone: 704-596-2475
LOCAL 71
FEDEX FREIGHT WORKERS IN CHARLOTTE VOTE TO JOIN TEAMSTERS LOCAL 71
Posted On: Nov 22, 2014

Drivers in Charlotte Seek Job Security, Improved Health Plan, Pension

(CHARLOTTE, NC) - A group of 222 drivers at FedEx Freight’s Charlotte, N.C., terminal voted today to join Teamsters Local 71.

“This victory is about wanting respect on the job, improved health care coverage and to be treated fairly,” said Roger Dale Jones, a 20-year road driver at FedEx Freight. “It feels great to have representation from the Teamsters.”

“Like the drivers in Philadelphia and in South Brunswick, N.J., who voted to join the Teamsters, the workers in Charlotte want to be treated fairly and they want consistent, fair work rules,” said Steve Bess, President of Teamsters Local 71 in Charlotte.  “The company ramped up its vicious anti-worker, anti-union campaign here, but the drivers remained strong and focussed.  Rather than lying to the workers, the company should use the money to provide better benefits for the workers and their families.”

This victory follows to previous ones: On Oct. 31, a group of 113 drivers at FedEx Freight in South Brunswick, N.J., joined Teamsters Local 701 in Brunswick, N.J., and on Oct. 14, a group of 47 drivers in Croydon, Pa., voted to join the Teamsters Local 107 in Philadelphia.  Other campaigns at FedEx Freight and at Con-way Freight are under way across the country.

“With these three victories, drivers are making it loud and clear to the company that they are fed up with FedEx Freight,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President.  “Our campaign continues to roll and FedEx Freight drivers are showing they will fight for fairness, respect, and dignity.”

The workers’ campaigns to join the Teamsters have already paid off.  At FedEx Freight, the company announced an 80-cent-per-hour raise a few days after Local 107 filed for an election, and the company got rid of its overly punitive driver scorecard, which gives drivers infraction points for errors.  Also, after organizing got under way at Con-way, the company announced it would increase truck driver pay by $60 million in 2015, and other improvements.

“The companies are offering pay raises and other improvements at the same time we are organizing, but the workers know that these things can be taken away just as quickly without a legally binding contract,” said Tyson Johnson, Director of the Teamsters Nation Freight Division.  “The unfulfilled promises that have been made to drivers and dockworkers over the past decade are coming back to haunt management.”


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Contact Info
Teamsters Local 71
2529 Beltway Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28214
  704-596-2475

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