Posts $250,000 in Effort to Save 75 Jobs
Contact: Luis Mendoza (540) 998-9162, lmendoza@usw.org
(Pittsburgh) – The United Steelworkers (USW) said today that the U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Va., issued an injunction on Friday against Covington, Va.-based Team Carriers for failing to live up to its contractual obligation to require the company that is taking over its business to hire its USW employees and bargain with the USW.
Citing a seldom-used legal doctrine known as a reverse Boys Market injunction, the USW has successfully enjoined Team Carriers from directly or indirectly selling any of its trucking equipment to Garten Trucking LC. This sale was scheduled for today, Monday, Aug. 26.
The sale is now on hold pending arbitration over whether Team Carriers was contractually required to condition sale of this equipment upon Garten’s hiring of the USW-represented employees as well as its recognition of the USW as their bargaining representative. Team Carriers’ loss of MeadWestVaco’s trucking business to Garten precipitated the equipment sale.
“Nobody should ever underestimate the depth of our union’s commitment to protect our hard-working members,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “We dedicated the resources necessary to go into a court of law and prevail.
“And we were more than able and willing to post a bond for $250,000 to secure the injunction.”
The USW represents some 850,000 members in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It is the largest private-sector union in North America, representing workers in a range of industries including metals, mining, rubber, paper and forestry, oil, health care, security, hotels, municipal governments and agencies.
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