DHL employees at Kentucky Air Cargo Hub are going on strike
More than 1,100 employees at DHL Express’ global air freight hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport went on strike Thursday after months of failed negotiations with the parcel carrier.
A group of DHL workers at the hub that loads and unloads planes voted in April to form a union with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has been in contract negotiations with the company since July. The union has since filed more than two dozen unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the company of retaliating against organized workers. Teamsters Local 100, which represents union workers, voted Sunday to authorize a strike.
“The company has enforced this work stoppage, but DHL has the opportunity to right this wrong by respecting our members and agreeing to a strong contract,” Bill Davis, president of Local 100, said in a statement.
DHL Express is the American division of the world’s largest logistics company, Deutsche Post, but represents only 2.3 percent of the United States market in terms of package volume, according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index. As a German company, it cannot ship between domestic airports in the United States, so it must outsource these services and instead focus on handling international shipments.
A DHL spokesperson said the company was “fully prepared for these expected tactics and has put contingency plans in place,” such as rerouting shipments to avoid Cincinnati and adding replacement staff members.
The company noted that approximately 4,000 employees were still working at the plant. It said it expected “no significant disruptions to our service performance.”
“Unfortunately, the Teamsters decided to attempt to influence these negotiations and pressure the company to agree to unreasonable contract terms by taking job action,” the company spokesperson said in a statement.
DHL’s strike comes at a time of increasing tensions in the sector between companies and organized labor.
Thursday the Teamsters threatened a strike at a United Parcel Service facility in Louisville, Kentucky, accusing the company of engaging in “similar practices to disrespect and abuse our members in the same state” by firing administrative staff who had just voted to join to join a trade union. The union also threatened a strike at UPS if things are ‘not in order’ by Monday.
UPS narrowly averted a strike this summer after contentious negotiations with the Teamsters, who threatened to shut down operations of the nation’s largest parcel service.
The facility where DHL employees are striking is located directly in front of Amazon’s Air Hub, where industrial action is underway. Workers there have accused Amazon of illegally hindering organizing efforts.