Overnite is the sixth-largest trucking company, and the largest nonunion trucking outfit, in the country, with some 8,200 drivers and loading dock workers. It has a total of 165 terminals in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The latest Teamster drive to organize Overnite, a subsidiary of the rail giant Union Pacific Corp., began in 1994, though some terminals had voted for union representation as early as two decades ago. The union now reports it has been certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) at 26 terminals, representing 36 percent of the drivers and dock workers. The union is also waiting official certification at 11 more terminals with an additional 9 percent of the workforce following pro-union votes in recent elections.

Overnite bosses have bitterly resisted attempts by workers to win union contracts and refused to negotiate contracts, even when the National Labor Relations Board upheld Teamster victories. It has waged unsuccessful campaigns to decertify the union at 12 terminals. The union has filed more than 1,000 unfair labor practice charges against the company since 1994, and won several NLRB rulings ordering the bosses to bargain for a contract. The NLRB found that Overnite had withheld pay increases from workers who joined the union, laid off workers and closed some terminals to block union organizing drives, and carried out unlawful harassment, discrimination, and surveillance against workers backing the union.

Overnite bosses have vowed to keep operations running despite the strike and have already organized strikebreakers, including at terminals in Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Memphis, and Miami. At the Bensalem terminal near Philadelphia, the company got an injunction October 26 restricting picketing to two people at a time, and allowing none at the gate actually used by the strikebreakers.

Workers at the five Chicago-area Overnite terminals are on strike. At Bedford Park, pickets report 53 of the 60 local drivers walked out and some 30 were on the picket lines there the afternoon of October 25. Most road drivers and dock workers at the terminal were working, however, they said, and trucks sporadically entered and left the terminal.

Strikers said local deliveries had been severely disrupted. They noted that Overnite had put inexperienced drivers on the road, and said one had already had an accident a few miles away.

Teamsters Local 705 steward Jim Smith explained that the union had won an election to represent the drivers in 1983, but the bosses refused to recognize the union or negotiate a contract.

"Overnite treats us like we don't exist," Smith said. "We say they have to deal with us. We can't let them walk over organized labor."

Hope, a driver with 14 months at Overnite, said she wanted to win a union contract to force the company to pay overtime after 40 hours, instead of the current practice of paying it only after 45 hours. "And they often work us right up to 44 hours, then send us home so we don't get the extra pay." She also said the workers needed a grievance procedure and guarantees for their pensions and benefits, so the company can't change them any time the bosses want to.

Overnite managers held meetings with the workers here to pressure them not to strike, said Hope, who asked that her last name not be used. "They said they would take care of us, that we'd have a secure future if we stuck with the company," she explained. "I got up and told them if they're making as much money as they say, why can't they pay us our overtime? They had no answer to that."

A striker with a powerful bullhorn called on workers still in the terminal to join the strike. "You want what we want!" he said. "If you don't respect the picket line you're working against your own sons and daughters who will have to start the fight all over again. If you're afraid of the boss now, you'll be afraid forever!"

One dock worker leaving the terminal stopped to talk with several strikers, who tried to convince him to join the walkout. "If I was a driver, I'd be on strike with you," he said, "but if I walk out now they'll fire me."

"They can't just fire you," a striker replied. "Join us and we'll fight together." The dock worker was unconvinced, however, and drove off shaking his head.

Strikers at Overnite's Miami terminal said 33 of the 43 drivers there are honoring the picket line. They voted to join Teamsters Local 390 in 1995 and have waged one-day strikes every year since to put pressure on the company to sign a contract. The company has hired extra security and brought a dozen scabs from the Orlando area to replace strikers, but had not used them so far according to workers on the picket line October 26.

In Atlanta, strikers report a big majority of the 300 drivers and dock workers joined the walkout. Workers there also voted for the Teamsters union in 1995.

Joe Reeves, a driver with 27 years seniority, said the organizing drive began after Overnite forced loading dock workers to work part-time, cut their pay from $14 to $10 an hour and reduced benefits.

Tom, another Atlanta road driver with 26 years seniority, pointed to the importance of uniting all Overnite workers behind the union fight. "For a long time they kept the road and city drivers divided by catering to the road drivers," he said. "In 1978 we lost a system-wide [union election] vote, partly because most road drivers didn't go for it."

Atlanta strikers have begun to reach out for broader support. A Labor Solidarity and Community Rally for Justice at Overnite will be held October 28 at 4:00 PM at the Moreland Avenue terminal in Atlanta.

Harvey McArthur is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 100A in Chicago. Floyd Fowler and Mike Italie in Atlanta, Connie Allen in Philadelphia, and Rollande Girard in Miami contributed to this article.  
 
 
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