Two Trucking Firm Owners Say Teamsters Raise Means Layoffs

RENTON

Two South King County trucking company owners say the Teamsters Union pushed an ill-conceived pay raise on them, forcing one company out of business and the other to possibly lay off drivers.

Bob Denney shut down his Renton Issaquah Freightlines after refusing a union contract that he says would have put him at an uncompetitive disadvantage. The move threw 46 people out of work.

"I was definitely not going to sign a contract which would make this company lose money right away," says Denney, of the 70-year-old trucking company.

Denney filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last week, charging the union with unfair bargaining practices. He says the union would not consider his contract offer and began picketing the company on Aug. 14, making it impossible to continue hauling freight and driving his customers to other truckers.

"All of my business is gone," he says.

But an official of Teamsters Local 174 says Denney's unionized employees voted to strike, if necessary, before the contract offer was made. Clint Copeland, a business representative with the union, says Denney's offer was not a "good faith proposal."

Meanwhile, Tom Pozzi says the union "railroaded" his firm, Pozzi Brothers Transportation, into accepting the same labor contract. The contract calls for the Kent hauler to boost drivers' compensation by $3.94 an hour over three years, through a combination of pay raises, pension and health care contributions.

"This contract is too high," says Pozzi. "The Teamsters make all the rules and have all the power."

Pozzi says he negotiated a contract with the Teamsters in late July that was agreeable to both sides. But the union then signed a contract with Acme Inter-City Freight Lines, a Seattle trucking company, that set the $3.49 an hour level.

The union adopted the Acme contract as the standard for all the companies it was bargaining with, including several in Seattle. Union officials told Pozzi to sign, or be picketed, he says.

"I was railroaded," he says. "They reneged on the deal and came up with something else."

Copeland says the union and Pozzi did not negotiate a contract.

"He made a proposal," says Copeland. "We didn't reach any agreement with him."

Copeland says some 470 of the local's 500 members in the Seattle area, agreed to the Acme contract as the standard offer.

"We're not out to rape the employers," he says. "We didn't make the decision, the membership did."

Pozzi will try to charge higher rates to some customers to pay for the higher labor costs, but he expects to lose other customers to non-union trucking companies. Losing business will force him to lay off some of his 35 drivers, he says.

Pozzi says he is not against pay hikes for his employees,who have not had one for 10 years.

"They work hard and are underpaid," he says of his employees. "On the other hand, there's nowhere to get that money."

The central problem, say Pozzi and Denney, is deregulation. Rates for hauling goods were deregulated by the federal government in 1980, opening up more competition from non-union companies. Since then, unionized haulers have come under increasing pressure to hold down labor costs.

In the Seattle region, non-union truckers pay drivers a high of $11.50 per hour, compared to highs of $12.90 an hour at union companies, says Pozzi.

"A great deal of the trucking industry in America gets business based on being the low bidder," Pozzi says. "Since everybody's paying the same for fuel, tires and trucks, the union shops can't stay in business."

"The American truck driver has been shafted," he continues.

Copeland says the union held off on pay hikes for 10 years after deregulation, to help the unionized owners stay competitive. But 10 years of stagnant wages was too much for union members, he says.

"After 10 years, we had a membership that was mad as hell," he says.

Denney says he was willing to offer his employees wage increases and benefits totaling $1.75 an hour over three years, about half the union's pay hike.

"My people were willing to accept it," he says. "They tried to get the union to vote for my proposal, but the union was willing to sacrifice my people."

Union officials, says Denney, told his employees on Aug. 14 that they would have to accept the union contract without a vote. Denney offered to open his company's books to the union, to show that his company could not afford the union raise, he says.

The union refused the audit.

Pozzi says the union was more cooperative about keeping labor costs down in past bargaining sessions. But Bob Hasegawa, the local's secretary treasurer, made a campaign promise to increase wages, he says.

For Denney, his company's closure puts an end to a long-held family business. Denney, 52, has worked at the company for 32 years, while his wife, Lynn, serves as a bookeeper. Both of their sons work at Renton Issaquah, too.

Any findings by the labor relations board will come too late to save the company. Denney says he is selling his 30 trucks and 48 trailers and there are several interested buyers.