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ITF calls on companies to exert pressure on US transport firm
9 October 2008
The ITF has called on clients of a US trucking firm to reconsider their business connections with the company until a dispute over labour violations has been resolved.
In a letter dated 10 October, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft urged representatives of K-Mart, JC Penny and Gap Inc to review their relations with West Coast carrier Oak Harbor Freight Lines. The companies all use the trucking firm in part of their supply chain. The move responds to reports from the ITF-affiliated Teamster union that members employed by the firm in Oregon, Washington and Idaho have been facing scare tactics, verbal abuse and assaults after they took strike action on 22 September in protest over union rights violations and intimidation.
It is understood that Oak Harbor hired a strike breaking consulting firm and brought in teams of professional strikebreakers who proceeded to intimidate longstanding employees. Over the past week, workers have reported being hit by vehicles driven by a strikebreaker, having objects hurled at them and being verbally abused by company officials. On 23 September, Oak Harbor also decided to cut health care benefits to employees and retired workers.
Cockroft told the company representatives: “If Oak Harbor is permitted to abandon its moral obligation to its employees, many Oak Harbor retirees with serious preexisting medical conditions will be left to fend for themselves and their spouses.”
He also reminded them that a number of the firm’s other clients had already taken action, stating: “Several socially responsible companies, including Recreational Equipment Inc and Urban Outfitters, have already elected to suspend their relationship with Oak Harbor until the company finds a just and lasting resolution to the ongoing labour dispute.”
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