Postal Workers’ 10 Roads Express unit on strike

 After a fast organizing campaign and an overwhelming union-election victory, 10 Roads Express drivers this month went on an Unfair Labor Practice strike.

“The strike was a powerful worker-led protest against the unjust retaliatory termination, by 10 Roads Express, of one of the main union leaders, Donna Gramm,” said the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). 

Since September, drivers concerned about worker harassment, unjust discipline, and the possible loss of full-time jobs have been working with APWU organizers Lori Cash and Rich Shelley, and within weeks a super-majority of union-authorization cards and filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board.

 

The Nov. 29 vote to unionize with APWU resulted in a 53-10 tally.

 

However, that was followed the next morning by the company discharging Gramm, “unjustly terminated for her union activity,” APWU said.

 

“I congratulate the Peoria 10 Road Express drivers on their outstanding union victory and welcome them into the APWU,” commented APWU international President Mark Dimondstein. “Their powerful actions of union solidarity now sets the foundation for building a strong local union and a strong contract campaign as negotiations for a first contract begin in the near future.”

 

The 10 Roads Express drivers haul mail throughout central Illinois, where holiday deliveries could be affected.