FedEx Home Delivery Drivers Vote Yes for Teamsters in Connecticut

http://sev.prnewswire.com/transportation-trucking-railroad/20070604/DCM04904062007-1.html

FedEx Home Delivery Drivers Vote Yes for Teamsters in Connecticut
Latest Unit to Join Teamsters Union in Drive for Rights and Respect

FedEx Home Delivery Drivers Vote Yes for Teamsters in Connecticut

WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A group of drivers at the FedEx Home Delivery terminal in Windsor, Connecticut who voted 12 to 9 to join the Teamsters Union on May 11 became members of Local Union 671 when the ballots were finally counted on Friday, June 1, due to delaying tactics by the company.

The FedEx Home Delivery single-route drivers are seeking to regain their rights and respect from a company that illegally classifies them as "contractors." After the election is certified, Teamster Local Union 671 and driver representatives will begin to bargain a contract that secures the long overdue wages, benefits and rights for these employees.

The drivers' vote follows a similar outcome of two FedEx Home Delivery terminals outside Boston that joined Teamster Local Union 25 in late 2006. The illegal FedEx Ground and Home Delivery business model of labeling its drivers as "contractors" but controlling them as employees is being challenged by FedEx workers around the country.

"The FedEx drivers are sick and tired of the misclassification that denies them fair pay and benefits and lines the pockets of FedEx management with the profits the drivers deliver every day," said Teamster General President Jim Hoffa. "The FedEx contractor scam has run roughshod over these workers for too long. This vote for the Teamsters marks the end of the scam for these drivers."

"Many of the FedEx drivers in Hartford struggled for years inside the FedEx Ground scam and found the system was always tilted against them," said Teamster Parcel and Small Package Division Director and International Vice President Ken Hall. "FedEx would routinely make promises and not live up to them or give something here only to take it away somewhere else. By joining the Teamsters, these drivers have clearly announced to the company that it is a new day and there will be a new way."

FULL story at link.

Good to see some American workers standing up for themselves!