Jamie Joe Lawrence, 48, has worked as a driver at Overnite for 10 years. "It's all over being treated like human beings," he said. "They're trying to take our dignity and respect away from us. Conditions here have gotten a lot worse over the last eight years."

Overnite, the sixth-largest U.S. trucking company, was bought by rail giant Union Pacific in 1986. Unable to get Overnite to bargain seriously since they voted to join the union in 1996, workers at the Memphis terminal first struck for several days last July. "We did it to get their attention," Lawrence said.

This is one of Overnite's four hubs, a huge facility the length of three football fields, with 200 loading doors. Despite Overnite's claims that the strike isn't having an effect, anyone driving by the terminal is struck by the sight of row upon row of idle trailers. Of the trucks that are on the road, some are virtually empty, strikers report. Workers from other Overnite terminals that have been shut down by the company have been brought in to work in Memphis. There are normally about 450 workers here, including over-the-road drivers, city drivers, dock workers, and maintenance workers. Strikers report that among drivers and workers in the maintenance shops, about half are out. The strike is strongest among the dock workers—70 percent are on the picket line. Virtually everyone who walked out when the strike started October 24 is still out.

In the 1996 union representation election at this terminal, 219 workers voted for the union, 201 against.

Strikers are picketing two gates, and have set up a big yellow tent nearby where they can take a break, talk, and cook while staffing the picket lines 24 hours a day. Members of Teamsters Local 667 from other freight carriers in Memphis often join the picket line. They also help with the ambulatory pickets, where strikers follow scab trucks to their destinations in the city and set up pickets there. They've succeeded in getting several companies to tell the Overnite trucks not to return.

Ronnie Caldwell, 51, has been a driver for Yellow Freight for 15 years. He is spending his whole five-week vacation on the Overnite picket lines. "I'll be out here 24 hours a day, seven days a week if I can," he said. "What's happening at Overnite is what's going to happen to us in 2003 if they don't win. We'll take a beating without them. UPS, Yellow Freight, Roadway, CF would all love to see Overnite beat the Teamsters here. Then they would take that strategy and beat us to death." Caldwell has been involved in some of the ambulatory pickets.

Dennis Harris, 39, has worked for two and a half years as a city driver. He's a former meatpacker from Illinois and longtime union member. "I support the Teamsters," Harris said. "This is mostly about how Overnite treats people, their harassment, how they bully us. We need to have a contract, to have a voice, to be treated as human beings.

"We don't know when we'll be off, from day to day. We don't get overtime [pay] after eight hours, but only after 45 hours," he added.

Pensions are another issue in the strike, Harris said. "Right now if you retire after 20 years, you would only get $700 a month."

Kenneth Hill, 32, has worked on the docks for 10 years. "We're on strike to be heard," he said. "We're trying to get them to cut the overtime down. Right now, we can be scheduled to work 60 hours a week."

Many strikers are getting jobs with other freight companies, and are drawing $100 a week strike benefits.

Terrance Fondren, 21, has been at Overnite seven months; he's a forklift driver on the docks. "They wouldn't treat me right, " he said. There are lots of younger workers on strike, he added.

Jesse Neeley, 35, has worked on the docks for 10 years. "I think the strike is going well," he said. "We can tell we're having an effect, because we've heard that they're not buying any new equipment, which they always do around this time." For Neeley, the main issue in the strike is also "to be treated right."

Strikers are also fighting for five workers who were fired for union activity before the current walkout started - one driver and four dock workers. "They were fired on hearsay," Neeley said, after the July strike.

Darl McCool, with 15 years on the docks, has done all the jobs at Overnite. "This strike is not about money," McCool stressed. "The workers with the least leverage are toting the biggest load in the strike," he said. "The dock hands can't go out and get another job driving a truck for somebody else for $16 an hour. They're looking at getting a job for $8 or $10. But they're stronger than anyone in the strike."

Overnite workers say they have to pay $240 a month for family medical coverage. The company only recently began to include dental and vision coverage, in an attempt to ward off the union threat.

Roger Darnell went to work for Overnite right out of high school; he's been on the docks 10 years now. "I decided to go on strike because several men who had 18 and more years seniority were fired and I knew they hadn't done what they were accused of.

"We started signing union cards in 1994," he said. "At first people were scared. The company would stage meetings with us for hours and hours, talking against the union. They showed us union-busting films. That let everyone know how desperate they are. The union is stronger on the docks because of the mistreatment and firings. And the other Teamsters are our extended family; without them, we wouldn't be out here."

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Overnite has already spent more than $20 million—half of its total profits in 1998—fighting the Teamster organizing drive. This includes the cost of an outside contractor that provides up to 400 strikebreaker drives and dock workers wherever the company needs them.

Overnite workers picketing at the Chicago-area Bedford Park terminal November 26 reported their walkout is also holding strong, with about 50 of 64 local drivers on strike.

Chicago is one area where Overnite has brought in outside strikebreakers, paying them a reported $1,000 per week, and housing them in a local hotel. At least two of the workers had had enough and decided to return home on November 17. They spoke with pickets, who helped them get their belongings and drove them to the airport.

Susan LaMont and Dick Geyer are members of United Steelworkers of America in Birmingham, Alabama. Harvey McArthur, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Chicago, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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