FedEx Freight's Charlotte drivers vote to unionize

FedEx Freight's 222 drivers at its Charlotte, N.C., terminal voted yesterday to be represented by Local 71 of the Teamsters Union, the company and union said. This is the largest block of drivers at FedEx Freight, the less-than-truckload (LTL) unit of FedEx Corp., to vote for union representation.

Yesterday's results mean that a total of about 400 drivers at three Fedex Freight locations— Croydon, Pa.; Monmouth Junction, N.J., and Charlotte—are now represented by the Teamsters. Drivers at Delanco and Newark, N.J., voted to reject union representation, and the union withdrew their petition to unionize at Middletown, Pa.; Richmond, Va., and South Newark, N.J. A withdrawal usually occurs when the Teamsters realize they will not have enough rank-and-file support to unionize.

FedEx Freight has made no secret of its anti-union animus, saying a better course of action would be for workers and management to directly address grievances rather than go through a third-party bargaining unit.

FedEx Freight has 355 U.S. locations. Under the National Labor Relations Act, the law which governs labor-management relations in the trucking industry, voting on union representation must take place terminal-by-terminal rather than at one time across an entire system.