Business View Magazine - Sept 2023

19 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 9 has shown strength with a low unemployment rate and consumers continuing to spend. “You’re always in a better position as a union if you’re coming into bargaining during a strong labor market with low unemployment and economic growth chugging along,” Vachon said. While established union workforces are securing new contracts, other employee groups in the transportation sector are organizing. More than 1,100 DHL Express workers at Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport voted to join the Teamsters in April. Drivers and dispatchers at an Amazon delivery contractor, Battle-Tested Strategies, organized with the Teamsters and ratified a union contract that same month. But Amazon terminated its relationship with Battle-Tested Strategies, and the newly organized workers began a strike for reinstatement and contract recognition by Amazon that has been ongoing since June. The Teamsters are still looking to unionize other employees involved in the logistics giant’s network. Randy Korgan, director of the Teamsters Amazon Division, believes the time is ripe to do so. “They’re recognizing that their value is much greater today than it was pre-pandemic,” Korgan said of logistics and transportation workers. “I think that is one of the things that the pandemic did: It gave a new awareness to the importance of the movement of goods. I feel as if they understand that now. Do they all understand what they can do with that?” How shippers are mitigating labor disruptions The push and pull in negotiations between employers and an empowered labor movement can — and has — cascaded into disruptive events for supply chains. In June, labor issues led to a brief period of limited terminal operations at several U.S. West Coast ports amid contract negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Strike activity in July among workers at Canada’s major ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert caused import dwell times to surge and created