DHL Express, one of Northern Kentucky’s largest employers, faces new allegations for unfair labor practices in an administrative complaint that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to the National Labor Relations Board submitted.
The German shipping giant’s North American Superhub is located at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Since 2013, DHL has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in ramping up operations at their CVG campus.
New allegations in the labor relations board’s general counsel case against DHL include accusations that the company surveilled workers who were discussing the union off-site and interfered with organizing efforts by DHL ramp and tug workers, according to an International Brotherhood of Teamsters press release.
Additional allegations accuse DHL of punishing and firing workers for engaging in union activity. A trial before a federal administrative law judge is set for Nov. 7.
Bill Hamilton, the director of the Teamsters Express Division, called the move by the labor relations board an “overdue step” in the investigation.
“DHL can start to restore credibility with its workers by giving their ramp and tug workers a fair contract and remaining neutral as its sort workers engage in union activity,” Hamilton said in the release. “DHL must do much more if it wants to live up to the worker-friendly image it seeks to portray in the media.”
Approximately 1,100 of the 3,000 DHL ramp and tug workers at CVG voted to join the Teamsters Local 100 labor union in April following multiple public demonstrations held outside the company’s Northern Kentucky headquarters months prior.
In October, DHL-Teamsters employees picketed for a contract and improved workplace safety conditions across the street from the company’s Northern Kentucky campus.
Contract negotiations between local Teamsters leadership and DHL management are ongoing.
“We want DHL to give us a fair contract and respect on the job,” said Gina Kemp, a DHL ramp lead at CVG. “My co-workers at DHL and I will continue working together toward that goal.”
