GreenvilleOnline.com – Powered by The Greenville News and you – Business – Teamsters win right to represent UPS terminals in Greenville, Gaffney, Columbia – (3/7/2008)

By Rudolph Bell
STAFF WRITER
dmbell@greenvillenews.com

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has likely strengthened its hand in South Carolina, winning the right to represent about 440 workers at UPS Freight terminals in Gaffney, Greenville and Columbia.

The Teamsters said today that a majority of workers at the terminals had signed authorization cards to join the union as part of a so-called “card check” process authorized by agreement with United Parcel Service. That means the Teamsters will represent workers at the terminals if an independent monitor finds the cards genuine during an upcoming review.

The terminals are among trucking sites across the country formerly operated by Overnite Corp., which UPS acquired in 2005 following a Teamsters strike of Overnite.

“We know the workers in South Carolina have endured a long struggle, and we?re very excited to see this day,” said Ken Hall, director of the Teamsters? Packaging Division. “The committee did a great job on the campaign and soon we will begin negotiating a contract for these workers that will give them the protections and guarantees they deserve.”

More than 7,600 former Overnite workers have signed cards to join the Teamsters since Jan. 16, the union said in a statement.

Galen Munroe, a Teamsters spokesman in Washington, D.C., said UPS has a so-called “neutrality” agreement with the Teamsters that it won?t block the union from organizing at its locations. He said the Teamsters have about 4,000 members in South Carolina, most of them employed by UPS.

John Creech, a shareholder with the Greenville-based Ogletree, Deakins labor law firm, said the Teamsters victory shows unions remain interested in signing up South Carolina workers.

Employees are often under a lot of pressure to sign union cards during a card check procedure, said Creech, general counsel for the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.