PALMETTO, Ga. — “We can tell the strike is hurting the company,” Billy Glover, a driver at 10 Roads Express for 24 years and member of Teamsters Local 728, told the Militant April 29. “With the union, work is safer. The company can’t force us to take out a truck if the tires are worn or the lights are out. We saw them send out a truck with no lights the other day!”
Some 500 10 Roads Express drivers walked off the job Feb. 18 in eight states. On Feb. 27, Teamsters in Palmetto, which is near Atlanta; in Mobile, Alabama; and in Miami and Tampa, Florida, joined the strike. The company is one of the largest contractors for the U.S. Postal Service in the country.
Although the group of strikers here is small, they have been staffing the picket line every day. David Mills, a driver at the company since 2015, joined the union when the strike started. “I decided I had to join,” he said, “to help make the conditions better. Without the union, the company will do the employees anyway they want.”
“I went up to Indianapolis for a week in early April to help walk the 10 Roads Express picket line there,” Glover said. “It was a great experience to meet strikers from other areas and see the solidarity.” The 10 Roads Express contract in Indianapolis doesn’t expire until November, but the union is making sure they are part of the national strike by maintaining a picket line.
“We expect to resume negotiations with the company in mid-May in Omaha,” Jerry Loudermilk, business agent for Local 728, told the Militant. The strikers are seeking higher wages and better benefits and working conditions.
A major issue in the strike is the union’s demand to be covered by a national contract instead of the current situation where there are at least 20 separate contracts with different expiration dates.
The company wants the union to agree to a “no strike” pledge in the new contract. “No way!” several strikers said. “Without the right to strike, you don’t have any power.”
The strikers welcome visitors to their picket line and said that Teamsters from UPS, DHL, Republic sanitation, the growing film industry in the area and others have been stopping by to bring solidarity. The picket line is up here 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week at 58 Tingle Lane.