Other unionists are helping picket the trucking company. In St. Louis, 40-year Teamster Sam Grosbauer emphasized, "I may be retired, but I'm not dead. I am trying to help the strikers at Overnite, picketing from six to eight hours every day." Grosbauer worked for Holland Motor Express. He pointed out, "You could tell with the UPS strike [in 1997] that people are getting tired of what the companies are doing. If we give up now, we are done."

The Overnite strike began when unionists walked off the job the morning of October 24 in Memphis, Tennessee. The union reports that more than 2,000 workers are now on strike at 140 worksites. The company claims the number of strikers are less than 1,000, and that deliveries are unaffected. But by its own figures shipping has dropped by at least 25 percent, and Overnite has closed barns in Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Laredo, Texas; and Rockford, Illinois. Many other terminals are operating at minimal capacity, according to the Teamsters.

Overnite is the sixth-largest trucking company in the country, and the largest that runs nonunion, with 8,200 drivers and loading dock workers at 165 terminals in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Workers have been waging an organizing campaign for years at the company, which is now a subsidiary of the rail giant Union Pacific Corp. A majority of workers have voted to join the Teamsters at terminals representing 45 percent of the workforce.  
 

Bosses wage campaign against union

Overnite bosses have bitterly resisted workers' efforts to win union contracts, and have 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 has won several National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings ordering the employers 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 terminals to block union organizing drives, and carried out harassment, discrimination, and surveillance against workers backing the union.

The day after the strike began, Dale Watson, who was recently fired as trucking operations manager in Overnite's Memphis terminal, confirmed many union charges against the company. Watson reported that the company's antiunion campaign included a "hit list" of union supporters to harass and intimidate, and that he had followed orders from above to help fire 40 pro-union workers since 1995.

Freedom from this kind of abuse, favoritism, and lack of security on the job is at the heart of the Teamsters strike to win a union contract. Richard Merritt in Atlanta, who has worked for Overnite 22 years, put it this way: "You can't just give dictatorial power to the boss, which is what having no union means."

"The organizing drive was tough," said Greg Cagle, a shop steward for drivers in Teamsters Local 120 on strike at Overnite's Minneapolis terminal. Workers there voted to join the Teamsters in 1994. Leading up to the vote, "Overnite managers came in from out of town and carried out a pressure campaign," Cagle said. "They rode with us, promised us overtime pay and lots more if we kept the union out. They said they'd closed down the terminal if we voted in the union." According to Cagle, 12 of the 55 local members crossed the picket line when the strike started, but four have been convinced to come back out and more are considering it.

On weekdays strikers in Minneapolis follow the scab trucks and picket them when they try to make deliveries at food warehouses where Teamsters and other unionists work. At two such warehouses, workers have refused to handle the strikebreakers' trucks.  
 

Solidarity rally in Atlanta

Workers from more than a dozen union locals in Atlanta turned out October 28 for a solidarity rally sponsored by the Atlanta Labor Council and Jobs With Justice. Among the 250 people at the rally were members of the United Auto Workers; the Association of Flight Attendants; the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE); the United Food and Commercial Workers; the Service Employees International Union; the Communication Workers of America; and several building trades unions. Union drivers from UPS, Roadway, Consolidated Freight and USF Holland turned out.

Unionists like David Dalton, who works on the dock at USF Holland, came out to the rally because "this strike is about the state of the labor movement today. If Overnite beats the Teamsters back then other companies will use the same strategy and try to do the same thing," Dalton said. "We're not going to let that happen. This strike will be the measuring stick."

Seven members of UNITE from the Marshalls Distribution Center in Decatur, Georgia, joined the rally. Posters were put up in the plant and distributed by strike supporters, and union members organized to have the rally flyer translated so that workers from Bosnia and Somalia could read it. Fred Flemister, a receiving dock worker with two years at the plant who joined the solidarity rally, said, "When you're rallying for other unions, the flyer should be translated into as many languages as possible," in order to involve as many workers as possible. Looking ahead to next May when the union contract expires at Marshalls, Flemister added, "We're doing this for our future. We might be in the same situation and need their support."

Workers joined the strike and the solidarity rally for a number of reasons. There were veterans of years of campaigning for the union at Overnite like Eddie Dunn, who recalled union representation elections as far back as 1979. Dunn spoke for many when he said, "The big issue isn't money, but job security and having a say-so in the workplace." He also pointed to a rotten pension plan as a sticking point for workers, noting that a driver who retired recently with 28 years on the road only got a $600 monthly pension. Under the plan today pension benefits are based on workers' income from their last five years on the job. "So many older guys take the higher paying over-the-road jobs," said Dunn, "but they shouldn't have to put in this time," taking the harder jobs just for a little more pension money.

Eloy Hernández was harassed and then fired by Overnite's Atlanta bosses in September of this year. With only a couple of months on the job as an in-town driver at the time, Hernández joined a July 1999 walkout called by the Teamsters and walked the picket line "because I'm just for what's right," he said. Hernández, who came to the United States from Cuba 18 years ago, said he later complained to the company about people getting bids out of seniority and other favoritism. After being screamed at by a foreman he was fired for "insubordination."

"They call you names, sometimes they call you a communist, but I don't care," Hernández concluded. "I'm on the picket line today."  
 

'It's time to stand together'

Two rank-and-file strikers addressed the Atlanta rally, in addition to Democratic Party politicians and speakers representing several unions. Joe Reeves introduced himself saying, "I'm a second generation Overnite driver," and described what sparked the organizing drive in Atlanta. In 1994 the bosses in Atlanta announced that workers with as much as 15 years seniority on the loading dock would be changed to part-timers, said Reeves. For these workers "pay was cut from $14 to $10 per hour, and benefits were reduced. Then when I started speaking against this, the terminal manager called me 'stupid' for complaining. That's when we started signing people up on the union cards." Reeves, who has 27 years at Overnite, concluded, "It's time to stop bowing our heads, and to stand together."

In the early evening here a number of Overnite trucks drive into and out of the terminal gates. Strikers explain that both during the July strike and today, the company has shifted many workers from the Charlotte, North Carolina, facility to Atlanta, trying to keep the operation going and to demoralize and intimidate strikers. Several times during the October 28 Atlanta rally there were exchanges between strikers and those who crossed the picket line and were walking in the terminal door. Trying to win over the line-crossers, one striker kept repeating "Don't cross our picket line. Join us. Here's where the power is." Striking Teamster Ken Graves said some workers walked out after having gone into work the first couple of days of the strike, and pointed to one who had joined the rally that day.

Many strikers pointed to the importance of this fight for the whole labor movement, a sentiment that is reinforced by the consistent presence of other unionists on the picket line. Ken Graves concluded that since the week-long strike last July, "more and more people stay out each time. This is not just Overnite. It's for truck drivers and working people everywhere."

Mike Italie is a member of UNITE Local 1997. Arlene Rubinstein in Atlanta, Alyson Kennedy and Shelton McCrainey in St. Louis, and Marge Tower in Minneapolis contributed to this article.  
 
 
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