Car Haulers Reject Second Contract Offer

Teamsters members reject a proposed labor contract for a second time, although the union has not yet decided whether to go on strike against the companies whose cars they transport from assembly plants to dealerships nationwide.

The union says the proposed contract, which would cover more than 5,000 drivers nationwide, lost 1,811-1,479. The drivers have worked without a contract for about a year, rejecting in October 2015 the carriers’ initial proposal, which they said included major concessions while the car industry was booming.

“In light of the members voting no on the national contract and Central-Southern Supplement, we will reconvene our national negotiating committee next week and determine the next steps," says Kevin Moore, director of the Teamsters’ Carhaul Div. who also is president of Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit.

“At the present time, the union is not calling for any job action against any employer but will evaluate all its options over the next several days.”

The carriers, the largest of which are Cassens and Jack Cooper, have not publicly commented on the contracts’ rejection but have warned the Teamsters they are under increasing pressure from railroads and non-union carriers that have expanded into specialty areas the union once dominated.

The agreement would have lasted five years and included annual pay increases of 1.2% to 1.4% for drivers and yard workers. Drivers now make between $48,000 and $52,000 a year before overtime. It also maintained existing health and pension benefits and included new protection against trucking companies moving work to non-union subsidiaries, a sore point for the union over the past 15 years.

The deal also would have given members $1,000 in bonuses payable upon ratification.

Critics of the rejected agreement from the Teamsters for Democratic Union, which long has been critical of union leadership for making too many concessions to employers, notes the agreement was turned down despite the leaders’ all-out push for ratification.

The campaign largely consisted of “threatening members with a strike and no strategy to win,” the TDU contends on its website.

“It’s time now to go to the carriers and get the members’ reasonable demands met. The members are not looking for sky-high wages, but they are saying NO to any concessions and YES to some gains, with auto production at an all-time high for two years.”

The Teamsters faction has argued last fall’s 87% vote against the initial contract proposal gave union negotiators the leverage needed to bargain for reasonable improvements and remove all concessions. Instead they waited a year, took a big pay cut off the table and negotiated the $1,000 bonuses instead of retroactive pay and failed to deal with issues the TDU says union members identified as problem areas.

Drivers from Teamsters locals in Michigan approved the second proposed contract but it was turned down by union members in Louisville and Georgetown, KY; St Louis and Kansas City, MO; and Cleveland, Lordstown, Toledo and Dayton, OH.

The contract also was rejected by union members in Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Memphis and Nashville, TN. according to an unofficial tally released by the TDU.

Despite their declining influence within the industry, the unionized carriers work with the Detroit Three automakers and foreign-owned transplants in the U.S., making them a key link in the process that transports finished vehicles to showrooms.