JAMES P. HOFFA, HUFFINGTON POST | This morning in the upscale suburbs of Connecticut, rank and file union leaders from a continent away are joining U.S. truck drivers and the Teamsters outside a shareholders’ meeting for XPO Logistics to take the company to task for its treatment of workers both here and abroad.
It is a historic uniting of U.S. and European workers and unions, brought on by a company that is keeping its workers and investors in the dark. XPO, new owners of Con-way Freight and port trucking companies Pacer Cartage and Harbor Rail Transport, are the nation’s second largest logistics company after UPS. But it’s mismanaging the integration of its new businesses, which is creating significant operational and financial risk for the company and its investors. Just as importantly, XPO is mistreating former Con-way workers by closing terminals, subcontracting out work and laying off employees.
Corporate greed is at the center of the dispute. XPO port and rail drivers are fighting company wage theft in excess of $200 million because of persistent misclassification as independent contractors, a scheme the National Labor Relations Board ruled is designed to deny workers of their legal right to form a union. And after settling multiple lawsuits in the company’s last mile division, XPO is now facing a new class action lawsuit from misclassified drivers at 3PD, valued in court documents at $75 million.