NYTImes
October 27, 1999
Manager Fired by Company Supports Teamsters on Strike
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
I n an effort to turn up the pressure during its three-day-old
strike against Overnite Transportation, the teamsters union
deployed an unusual weapon on Tuesday: a former Overnite manager
who said the company systematically broke the law by dismissing
workers who supported the union.
Dale Watson, a former operations manager in Overnite's trucking
terminal in Memphis, said the company dismissed "several hundred"
workers at the terminal over the last four years because they
favored unionizing Overnite, the nation's largest nonunion trucking
company.
In an affidavit and a telephone news conference, Watson backed the
teamsters' accusations that Overnite had brazenly and repeatedly
violated the law in seeking to rebuff the drive to unionize its
8,600 drivers and dock workers.
Watson said company managers had a "hit list" designed to dismiss
union supporters, and he added that he had followed his superiors'
orders by helping eliminate more than 40 pro-union workers since
1995.
Federal labor law makes it illegal for any company to fire or
retaliate against an employee for supporting a union. The
International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been seeking to organize
Overnite since 1994, and has filed dozens of charges with the
National Labor Relations Board accusing the company of dismissing
or retaliating against union supporters.
Overnite officials said on Tuesday that Watson's comments were made
out of vengeance for the company's dismissing him last week.
Ira Rosenfeld, an Overnite spokesman, called Watson's statements
"absolutely ridiculous" and said the company has not fired workers
for supporting the teamsters.
"There is no hit list, and there never has been a hit list," he
said. "This is a gentleman who was fired last week for poor
performance."
Watson said he had no idea why he was fired. He said that to push
out union supporters, company managers often gave them demerits
when they arrived at work a few minutes late, but did not do the
same to union opponents.
"There's too much injustice being done to employees," said Watson,
who said he came forward because he was so upset with how Overnite
treated its employees.
The strike began at the Memphis terminal on Sunday and spread
nationwide on Monday. The teamsters said they called the strike to
protest unfair labor practices by Overnite.
Rosenfeld said the strike was having a negligible effect. He said
only 600 workers were on strike, and he asserted that the teamsters
picketed fewer terminals on Tuesday than the 40 they had picketed
on Monday.
Sharply disagreeing, Dave Cameron, a teamsters' spokesman, said
more than 2,000 workers were on strike on Tuesday, with the
picketing expanding to 109 of Overnite's 166 terminals. Cameron
maintained that the strike was disrupting Overnite's operations and
costing the company millions of dollars.
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