Teamsters: Reinstate our drivers The closing of two Schneider divisions heads to an NLRB hearing in December By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle A Green Bay Teamsters official called for Schneider National to rehire drivers the company fired in June when it closed two divisions in a dispute over a union pension fund. Fred Gegare, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 75, said Wednesday the union would ask for reinstatement and seek an injunction if Schneider refused. The union will write Schneider tomorrow asking for reinstatement within 72 hours of the letter's receipt; if that is not done, court action will be requested. The Teamsters won one battle Tuesday in their fight with the trucking company when the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Schneider for bargaining in bad faith. The matter will be heard starting Dec. 1 in De Pere, with the NLRB seeking to have union employees reinstated and given back pay and benefits, and restoring the two divisions. Tom Nightingale, vice president for corporate marketing at Schneider, said the company "will await the NLRB hearing. We remain confident the board, as it has done in the past, will find us to be correct in this issue and that we've done nothing other than act in good faith and in our drivers' best interests." He said he could not comment on the Teamsters' request for reinstatement until the letter is received. Schneider closed the divisions to meet a July 1 deadline which would have forced it to pay a penalty into the Central States Pension Fund run by the union. One attorney specializing in labor issues said at the time Schneider could have faced paying $4.5 million. Schneider closed its Schneider Tank Lines and Schneider Transport Classic divisions, putting 123 union drivers out of work. A release from the Teamsters said the average age of the drivers was 58 with an average seniority of 25 years. The sides did little or no bargaining as the closing neared, with Schneider saying the Teamsters refused to let members vote on a Schneider-proposed pension plan while the Teamsters said they would not let members vote because Schneider did not provide information about the plan. At the time Tom Vandenberg, general counsel for Schneider National, said the company had not provided documents about the plan because they had not been drawn up and would not be until the plan was approved, and that it had answered 73 of 75 questions the Teamsters had asked. That was one of the issues that led to the NLRB decision, Gegare said. For that reason, the Teamsters did not allow drivers to vote on the company plan. "It is our obligation to properly represent our drivers," Gegare said. "The only thing we could do is give them a blank sheet of paper and say 'I can't answer the question, but vote your conscience.'" Schneider said allowing a vote would have avoided the situation. "Unfortunately, 123 good, hard-working drivers were denied the ability to decide on a contract that would have allowed them to reach retirement age on their own terms," Nightingale said. The NLRB findings also said: - On May 21, Wayne Baudhuin of Schneider threatened an employee with job loss and "unspecified reprisals" because of union activities. - The company transferred the Transport and Tank Lines work to other, nonunion areas of Schneider National in violation of contracts. Gegare said the events of July were the culmination of a long stretch of eliminating the union at Schneider. "Back in the 1970s and early '80s there used to be 1,500 drivers who worked for transport. Today there's about 100. Today, over 1,400 drivers are enjoying a Central States Pension," he said. "Back then we had five or six drivers working for every retiree. Today we had one driver working before June 28 for 10 retirees." Schneider had paid a previous withdrawal liability to the fund in 1997 after it stopped making contributions and cut its unionized workforce. At the time, a settlement allowed Schneider to stay in the fund without penalty until July 1. He compared Schneider to corporate wrongdoers Enron and Worldcom in hurting its workers. "Their callous efforts were very blunt and cold toward their employees," he said. Nightingale said the Teamsters' action should have been filed before or during the 60 days between the first notice of the possible closings and the actual event. This was one of several cases the Teamsters had filed with the NLRB, with others going in favor of Schneider.