The Teamsters' Union Attempt to Organize Overnite Transportation Company: A Study of a Major Union Failure
![handle is hein.journals/tportl30 and id is 133 raw text is: The Teamsters' Union Attempt To Organize
Overnite Transportation Company:
A Study of a Major Union Failure
Herbert R. Northrup*
On October 24, 2002, three years to the day after it ordered a strike
at Overnite Transportation Company, the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters (IBT or Teamsters) made an unconditional offer to the
company to return employees to work.1 Earlier that day, the company
had noticed that picketers at the few company facilities that had main-
tained the strike had withdrawn.2 The union offer, which the company
gladly accepted, was made without any claim for back pay or other con-
siderations, despite the IBT's assertions throughout the strike that it was
caused by company unfair labor practices, which, if endorsed by the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the courts,3 might have en-
* Professor Emeritus of Management and formerly Director, Industrial Research Unit,
Chairman, Labor Relations Council, and Chairman, Department of Industry, The Wharton
School, University of Pennsylvania. B.A., 1939, Duke University, A.M, 1941, Ph.D., 1942
(Economics), Harvard University.
The author thanks Carla E. Beazley, Sue Torelli, John N. Raudabaugh, Marc Chrismer,
Daniel B. Pasternak, John D. Schulz, Herv H. Aitken, and the staff of the NLRB Information
Division for assistance in obtaining unpublished cases and other materials for this study.
1. Teamster's Union Calls End to Strike Against Overnite After Three Years, DAILY LAB.
REP. (BNA) No. 208 (Oct. 28, 2002), at AA-1 [hereinafter Teamster's Union Calls End to Strike].
2. Id.
3. This claim has been continuously accepted by the associate editor and principal writer
of TRAFFIC WORLD, the major weekly journal in the field, but not endorsed by the courts and
certainly denied by Overnite management. TRAFFIC WORLD even went so far as to state in its](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tportl30&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Teamsters' Union Attempt to Organize Overnite Transportation Company: A Study of a Major Union Failure
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