Another Successful Private Sector Organizing Effort

09/12/2018 - Some non-unionized drivers from Pat Salmon Companies in El Paso, TX approached the Salmon Companies Dallas APWU represented drivers with concerns over their working conditions. The Dallas driver President, Sonny Castleman, quickly arranged for a meeting with the drivers to discuss the issues.

The El Paso drivers overwhelmingly decided that they needed union representation. The union collected 26 Form 1187’s from drivers, which was over 80% of the driver workforce at the terminal. "The company officials were approached and advised that we had about 80% of the workforce on board to become a unionized unit," stated Support Services Director Steve Brooks. At that time the company stated that they would not agree to accepting the documents and would require that the APWU solicit an NLRB vote.

The APWU then filed with the NLRB to have an election vote for the drivers in El Paso. The company advised us that they would stay out of the voting process and let it take its natural course, Brooks stated. The vote was to take place on September 6, 2018 and on September 5 the company handed out flyers to every El Paso driver stating that it would not be in the driver’s best interest to join the union, as they could not guarantee them wage and working condition improvements because it would have to be agreed upon in the collective bargaining process.

Despite the company’s efforts to taint the election process the vote was 26 to join and 6 against. We now have another private sector drivers group for which we will be negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.