CA’s Dependable Highway Express Employees Force Teamsters Out

In February, the Globe reported that John Cwiek, an employee of Dependable Highway Express, a Los Angeles-based transportation company, had recently filed federal charges against the Teamsters Local 63 union. Cwiek maintained that Teamsters union officials retaliated against him for revealing truthful but unfavorable information about the union to his coworkers.

What did Cwiek reveal? Cwiek sent letters to his coworkers in January with details about union boss salaries – information Cwiek pulled from Teamsters LM-2 filings.

Tensions escalated between employees and the union after Teamsters officials threatened to terminate Cwiek. A union official appeared at Cwiek’s workplace, made accusations against him, and threatened that Cwiek wouldn’t be working at Dependable Highway Express by the next contract period. The National Right to Work Foundation reports that these types of threats are illegal under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects employee speech critical of union officials, and protects employees’ right to refrain from union activities if they so choose.

Now we learn from the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW) that employees at transportation company Dependable Highway Express have successfully ousted Teamsters Local 63 union officials from their workplace.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation provided Cwiek free legal aid.

According to NRTW, Cwiek filed a union decertification petition in March, asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a vote at his workplace to determine if the Teamsters union should continue its control over Dependable Highway Express employees.

Cwiek’s petition contained signatures from a nearly 2-1 majority of employees at Dependable Highway Express’ Ontario location, far more than the 30% needed to trigger a vote under NLRB rules. However, before the NLRB could hold a decertification vote, Teamsters officials filed a “disclaimer of interest” announcing they were ending their “representation” of the work unit.

That means the labor union saw the inevitable ouster, dragged out the decertification vote as long as they could, but had to pull out.

“Because California lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector workers, Teamsters union officials had the power to force Cwiek and his colleagues to pay fees to the union as a condition of keeping their jobs. In Right to Work states, in contrast, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary. Following the disclaimer, Cwiek and his coworkers are now free of the union’s forced-dues demands and its control over their working conditions.”

The National Right to Work Foundation does extraordinary work, and especially in states like California where workers don’t have right-to-work protections.

You can read more about Mr. Cwiek’s decertification petition to drive the Teamsters out of Dependable Highway Express, and the National Right to Work Foundation’s representation here.

Notably, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys are currently helping other transportation industry employees in Southern California oppose unwanted Teamsters union influence.