NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.—Drivers at a South Carolina port drayage company have voted to join
Teamsters Local 509, the union announced Dec. 13. The 53 drivers at Container Maintenance Corporation Logistics, who transport shipping containers between the Port of Charleston and a railyard in North Charleston, are part of the “intermodal” branch of the trucking industry—moving goods from one form of shipping to another—that the Teamsters have been trying to organize. “The final straw that led us to unite as Teamsters,” driver Reggie McQueen said in a statement released by the union, came in August, when the company changed their pay from hourly to “production”—piecework—and then cut it. McQueen said that led to his application for a home loan being rejected, because it meant he had no verifiable income. “This victory is a monumental win because it will pave the way for many others at the Charleston ports,” Local 509 President James Todd said. Workers at two other intermodal companies have voted to join the Teamsters in the last six months: 133 workers at ITS ConGlobal in the Chicago suburb of Harvey on Dec. 1; and 507 at Parsec in Elwood, Ill., in July. Read more
