The Courier-Journal (Louisville), August 22, 2008, Friday

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The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

August 22, 2008 Friday

METRO Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1D

HEADLINE: Teamsters halt truck shipments

BYLINE: Jere Downs jdowns@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal

BODY:

Strike continues

outside Ford plant

jdowns@courier-journal.com

{}The Courier-Journal

Teamsters Local 89 members began the fourth day of a strike yesterday, halting the shipment of Ford F-Series Super Duty trucks from the Kentucky Truck Plant.

It is uncertain how Ford Motor Co. will move the trucks to dealers.

"These people on the picket line are not asking for higher wages or better health care," Ken Lauersdorf, the union local's business agent, said as he manned a line on Westport Road.

Behind the picket line were the former offices of Auto Port, the Flat Rock, Mich., subcontractor that Ford apparently let go Tuesday as a result of the dispute.

When Auto Port was awarded the contract from Ford to take over work performed by RCS Transportation at the Kentucky Truck and Louisville Assembly plants in June, Teamsters were earning between $20 and $22 per hour. Concessions negotiated to keep those jobs lowered their pay to between $17 and $18 per hour, but maintained health-care and pension benefits.

The strike began Monday after Auto Port said it would not accept the Teamsters' National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement, according to Local 89 President Fred Zuckerman.

Auto Port officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment yesterday.

Ford spokeswoman Angie Kozleski declined to comment further on the strike yesterday. She has previously said the automaker is committed to keeping production going at both plants.

Teamsters stopped picketing outside the Louisville Assembly Plant yesterday when it became clear that Auto Port had moved out, Zuckerman said. The plant begins a three-week shutdown today because of sagging demand for Ford Explorers.

Production continues at the truck plant, albeit on one shift also caused by lower demand. As a result, new Super Duty trucks are being stored in parking lots around the plant, protected by fences erected this week. Ford makes about 2,800 Super Duty trucks at the plant each week.

While Zuckerman claimed Wednesday that United Auto Workers union members might be trained by Auto Port to do Teamster work, he said yesterday that UAW officials had informed him that the automaker was trying to hire a new transportation subcontractor.

"The UAW is trying to do everything they can to benefit the Teamsters," UAW Local 862 President Rocky Comito said yesterday.

For the time being, the Teamsters will still block the gates to the truck plant railyard, Zuckerman said.

If a new transportation provider is chosen, he added, "you have to find out if they are interested. Then you have to come to terms."

All sides in the dispute have different motives that produced Auto Port's ouster from Louisville, said Richard Hurd, a labor relations professor at Cornell University.

Of Ford's decision to let Auto Port go, Hurd said, "Ford is not going to ask for a fight with labor unions. In fact, they actually have a pro active attitude that they would rather work with unions and develop a productive relationship and be successful that way.

"Of all the auto companies," Hurd noted, "Ford has by far most embraced a high-road approach."

As for the Teamsters, they must protect their national labor agreement at all costs, he said.

Teamsters "know they will dominate the work for delivering Ford cars and trucks. They are not going to accept any arrangement with an employer that undercuts their master agreement."

The UAW finds itself in the tightest spot.

Federal law, and the union's contract with Ford, prevents the union from joining Teamsters on the picket line. And the UAW doesn't want to pick a fight, Hurd said.

"They won't try to tread on Teamsters' turf," he said.

Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.

LOAD-DATE: August 23, 2008