Editorial: Carhaul Strike Threat

The trucking industry is anxiously awaiting the outcome of the talks between the nation’s automobile haulers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. While the results of those talks are important on their own, the negotiations have taken on even more significance because they represent the first major test of the union’s new leader, James P. Hoffa.

The carhaul talks are the only national contract the Teamsters will negotiate during Hoffa’s truncated first term as the leader of the second-largest labor organization in the nation. Thus, the success or failure of the outcome is sure to play a major role in a re-election campaign in 2001.

Traditionally, new labor leaders talk tough, and often act on those words. Hoffa’s predecessor, Ron Carey, took the Teamsters into the disastrous strike against the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers not long after he assumed office in 1992. That strike sent many shippers to nonunion companies.

And sure enough, Hoffa has promised his members he will secure a good contract for them. “We need better pensions, improved health and welfare plans and accurate paychecks,” he has said.

Last week, the union voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against any or all of the 17 companies involved in the talks if there is no agreement by May 31. While that wasn’t a surprising turn of events, it does take the two sides a step closer to a strike, which could prove very damaging to both. And neither side can afford it.

In 1985, 50% of all cars manufactured by the Big Three automakers were transported from the assembly plants by union carriers. Last year, the number was down to 29%. That is not a trend line for a healthy carrier industry.

At the same time, by Hoffa’s own words, the Teamsters union is barely solvent itself.

So, it would seem to be in the interests of both sides to come to a mutually agreeable solution, short of a disruptive strike that could well send more of the auto business to the railroads, which have been working hard to capture it.

This is also an opportunity for Hoffa to show his diplomacy skills, to let us all see how the Teamsters are going to evolve under his leadership.