thoughtleaders JEFF FARMER
High Capacity
Spiral
Conveyors
High Capacity Spirals are in
response to our customers’ need to
go higher and handle more weight.
They can handle double the weight
capacity of our regular spirals at speeds
up to 200 FPM.
Optionally these spirals allow loads to
enter or exit the High Capacity Spirals
at intermediate elevations. New special
induction and divert conveyors have
individually adjustable conveying surfaces
to match the spiral pitch, assuring a
smooth and reliable operation.
For application assistance or more
information, give us a call or visit
www.ryson.com.
300 Newsome Drive • Yorktown, VA 23692
Phone: (757) 898-1530 • Fax: (757) 898-1580
VERTICAL CONVEYING SOLUTIONS
32 DC VELOCITY APRIL 2017 www.dcvelocity.com
as “independent contractors,” and other
schemes to escape liability to workers and
government.
QThere have been several court rulings in the past couple of years that transport workers once classified as independent contractors were in reality company
employees. This may become a pivotal
issue because labor law bars independent contractors from
forming a union. What
is your strategy here?
AWe have taken this issue head-on. We
are leading the way to
challenge management’s
claims about independent contractors as part
of our efforts to organize
port drivers and local
delivery drivers. As you
said, the National Labor
Relations Act (NLRA)
doesn’t allow truly independent contractors to
form a union. So if the workers are independent, we can’t organize them. But
the scam practice of misclassifying workers who are not independent and have
no control over their work has become
widespread, and workers are starting to
push back.
We are coming to the aid of workers
who have been misclassified. Corporate-driven efforts to mislead workers, unions,
governments, and communities by misclassifying huge segments of workers as
independent contractors were hatched
many years ago to limit liability for companies, to divert responsibility, and to
ultimately push costs onto everyone else.
Through the Teamsters’ efforts, more
people have become aware of the misclassification issue, and its truly sham
nature is being exposed.
QDo you have any estimate on the size of the potential market?
AThe Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in its 2016 report on union membership found that only 6. 4 percent of the
private-sector workforce is unionized.
Obviously, there are millions of workers
without the benefit of a voice at work. If
our nation is to truly address the alarm-
ing decline of the middle class and to deal
with the problem of income inequality,
we must organize workers on a massive
scale, and at an accelerated pace. This
may sound like a pipe dream, but as we
have seen, workers are increasingly fed
up. They have had enough of working
harder for less, having no say on the job,
and facing an insecure
future with no pension
or retirement—and they
are looking for a way
out. There is tremen-
dous potential to orga-
nize them into unions.
QYou have targeted XPO Logistics Inc.
largely because it touches so many parts of the
supply chain. It has a
significant union presence in Europe through
its 2015 acquisition of
French firm Norbert Dentressangle.
There have been worker protests at various XPO-related events. Are you taking
steps to combine organizing efforts with
those of XPO’s European unions, and
what are the cultural and workplace challenges in doing so?
AWe have a very close relationship with our brother and sister unions
overseas. We work with the International
Transport Workers Federation and with
individual unions in countries across
Europe and in other parts of the world.
XPO operates in a global economy,
where business is done at different levels
of union density and labor relations. It is
imperative that those of us who represent
workers’ interests have matching global
reach. We have worked with our international allies for many years. Today, our
relationships are more tightly knit than
ever before. European union representatives joined us last year at XPO’s annual
shareholder meeting, and they made it
clear that we are a family of unions that
stand together with a common goal of
winning dignity and respect for XPO
workers.
