HEBRON, Ky. — Workers at a major logistics and shipping company have unionized in northern Kentucky.
Brandi Dale, a ramp agent at the DHL Express Ramp at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), said it’s all about empowering the workers.
“Before, the managers could basically do whatever they wanted,” Dale said. “If they said jump, we had to say how high? Now if they say jump, we can say, well, what are you going to do if we jump? How are we going to benefit from this jump?”
DHL’s global hub employs over 3,000 people. About 1,100 of them took part in a vote to join the Teamsters Local 100 Labor Union, an effort Dale led, which she said was successful by a wide margin.
Dale said she set out with the goals aimed at safety, wages and the way employees are treated.
“In the beginning, it seemed that people were kind of wishy washy. They didn’t really want, didn’t know if they wanted the Union or not,” she said. “In the last few weeks, the excitement has really been there. There’s been a lot of people that were definitely not in favor of the union that have flipped after they’ve seen all the things that we can do.”
After they won the vote, she was elated and brought to tears.
“The feeling was indescribable. I mean I cried,” Dale said. “Walking out on the ramp on my first day officially as a teamster, I felt incredible. I felt invincible, like nothing can touch me, because I have 6,000 teamster brothers and sisters backing me up, and rooting for us to get our contract negotiated.”
Dale went into more detail about what she alleged as unsafe working conditions.
“You can be safe sometimes, or you can hurry. But you can’t do both the way they want you to. And so we are working on equipment that is faulty or just does not do the job it’s intended to do—outdated equipment that is unsafe,” she said.
She said employees have also had to work through conditions such as severe weather with no hazard pay.
“And I think that people just want the company to respect that we’re putting our necks on the line to earn them money,” she said. “And they need to respect that we deserve a fair wage. We deserve safe conditions.”
The National Labor Board must certify the election. Then negotiations for the Teamster contract can begin. Dale said throughout the process some employees have faced blowback, even termination, because of, as they have said they believe, their association with the union.
Despite this, she said she would encourage any workers who are unhappy to make their voices heard, including those at the Amazon Air Hub across the street from DHL, who are also attempting to unionize.
“I definitely would say to the Amazon folks across the street: it might be a fight, but it will be worth it,” Dale said.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to DHL for comment on this story. A representative said, “We will be able to comment after the certification process is complete.”