Private-Sector Workers Turn Back Decertification Effort

By a vote of 60-25, APWU-represented motor vehicle operators at a private-sector mail-haul operation in Kansas City have rejected a union decertification effort.

"Management tried to split and divide us," said Tony Olson, an APWU steward and driver for Mail Contractors of America, the employer. "They even resorted to personal attacks on union activists."

The APWU has been trying to get a first contract at MCA in Kansas City for more than three years. The union also has been working to get renewed contracts with MCA at terminals in Des Moines and Jacksonville, FL. Drivers at all three locations went on strike against MCA for three weeks last spring.

"We're just trying to get our fair share," Olson said. "Our membership is growing and the union is here to stay. We will continue the fight for a true voice at work and job security."

MCA is one of the nation's largest private mail haulers. It has imposed conditions on drivers such as forcing them to assume all costs of health insurance premiums if they wished to maintain the coverage guaranteed them under lapsed APWU contracts.

Approximately 110 drivers were eligible to vote in the decertification balloting in late August.