CR England Chicago intermodal drivers decertify Teamsters local

With the new decertification, which was approved via membership vote, none of CR England’s over 8,000 employees are currently represented by a union, the trucking company said in a statement Monday.    Nearly 70 intermodal drivers working out of the Chicago site of trucking and refrigerated transportation company CR England have voted to decertify Teamsters Local 705 as their bargaining representative after a long battle to unionize that was followed by a relatively short period of representation, CR England said in a statement Monday.
   The group of intermodal drivers represented less than one percent of the company’s employees and was the only fleet in the 97-year history of CR England to have voted for union representation, according to the company.
   With the decertification, which was approved via a membership voted held Sept. 20, none of CR England’s over 8,000 employees are represented by a union, the Salt Lake City, Utah-based company said.
   “We are pleased by this decision by our drivers to decertify,” company CEO Zach England remarked. “This vote allows the company to work directly with drivers regarding their individual needs as opposed to working through a third party that often doesn’t concern itself with individual drivers or their circumstances.”
   “CR England drivers are critical to our company success and we appreciate their endorsement of an ongoing relationship fostered through mutual respect,” he said.
   The decertification brings to a screeching halt a unionization drive by the Chicago truckers that dates to the summer of 2012, which is when Local 705 said it was contacted by CR England truck drivers to unionize. Some of the problems the drivers cited, according to the Teamsters, were cited were high health insurance premiums, supervisors’ favoritism and low pay.
   In January 2013, Local 705 filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election among the CR England employees. The election took place the following month, with Local 705 winning the certification election with 43 votes in favor of unionization and 23 against.  
   CR England filed objections with the NLRB to have the election results overturned, but those objections were rejected and Local 705 was certified as the CR England drivers’ union in July 2013.
   CR England, however, said that a federal appeals court finding against then-President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB rendered the election results and certification invalid, and refused to recognize the newly certified union local. During this time, the unit was unable to begin bargaining with their supervisors over the issues that led the drivers to vote for a union.
   Local 705 then filed unfair labor practice charges against CR England with the NLRB Region 13 office in Chicago. Local 705, the NLRB and CR England agreed to a settlement agreement in which CR England agreed to recognize Local 705 as the drivers’ union and to bargain in good faith with Local 705 for a first contract, thereby ending nearly 18 months of litigation.
   However, between then and now, some intermodal truckers launched a union decertification effort supported by their employer, which led to September’s decertification vote.
   During the decertification campaign, CR England said that its primary message to drivers was about the benefit of having a direct relationship with CR England leadership to most effectively meet their workplace needs.