For Erich Schmidt and fellow striking truckers, it is difficult to watch: strangers doing their work.
For nearly 11 weeks, replacement drivers have left the spacious fleet yard in company trucks, following familiar routes to deliver the goods for Oak Harbor Freight Lines.
“It’s hard, very hard,” said Schmidt, a longtime truck driver for Oak Harbor as he watched his forgotten co-workers pace the picket lines along West Valley Highway and off 37th Street Northwest. “This was once a premier trucking company, but now it has come to this?”
“It’s more of a pride thing now,” Schmidt added. “They won’t let it go.”
Both sides refuse to let go of the ugly, ongoing labor dispute. And there doesn’t appear to be any reasonable end in sight as the rhetoric and accusations continue to fly between striking Teamsters and the Auburn-based trucking company.
At the core of the strike is the Teamsters’ allegation that the company is conducting unfair labor practices in a bid to bust up the union. The company says that claim is unfounded.
The company and the union have been negotiating a new contract since mid-2007, which would have replaced the old pact that expired on Oct. 31, 2007. Among other issues, the parties disagree over the proposed company-run medical benefits.
“It’s become personal on both sides,” said Al Hobart, Teamster vice president and Joint Council 28 president. “It’s not good.”
The union filed charges of unfair-labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board. Those charges are pending. The Teamsters hope that any favorable ruling might motivate and lure company leaders back to the table.
Negotiations have been few and futile.
“I don’t think we’re any closer now than when we were then,” said company spokesman Mike Hobby. “They gave us 36 demands on the first meeting and four new proposals in the next one. Some of the things they brought up we already had agreed to even before the strike.”
Meanwhile, weeks advance and frustrations mount.
At times, police have stepped in to calm tensions in the strike zone between replacement drivers and sign-carrying strikers.
Both sides since have settled on a common ground – for safe picketing and safe passage for striking and replacement workers.
Yet the dispute lingers.
It has been a long and weary road for those carrying signs decrying “unfair” labor practices. The truckers have been persistent and unwavering in their solidarity.
“It’s sad that America is this way right now,” said Gary Bolen, of Teamsters Local 174. “I never imagined anything like this.
“And it’s not like they’re asking for more money,” Bolen insisted. “They just want to go back to work.”
Given the country’s deepening recession, the strike has been magnified as idle truckers and their families try to survive financially.
Putting food on the table is taking priority over placing gifts under the Christmas tree.
Times definitely are tough.
“Lots of folks are not paying bills … none of us have health insurance,” said Don Abendroth, an 18-year driver for Oak Harbor. “They’re trying to cut corners and pinch pennies.”
As union truckers watch from the sidelines, the freight company continues to be on time with deliveries. The company, according to a recent Washington Department of Transportation report, is maintaining an exceptional safety rating on the roadways.
Hobby said 129 of the company’s 578 union employees who were represented when the strike began on Sept. 22 have crossed the picket line.
Oak Harbor, Hobby insisted, is doing its part to meet the needs of its customers despite a volatile trucking industry and dour economy.
“It’s been hard on everybody and hard on everybody differently,” Hobby said.
It has been especially difficult for the resolute striking force.
“Surprisingly, they are standing tall,” Hobart said. “We lost a few of ours, but a majority of them are dedicated.
“It’s not the best time to be on the streets if there ever is a good time,” he said. “But these are tough times.”
Reach Mark Klaas at
253-833-0218, ext. 5050, or mklaas@reporternewspapers.com
