Hannaford Transportation Union Vote

Here is a bit of important information that appears to have been kept “hush hush” recently;

Hannaford Transportation (which supplies grocery delivery to all the Hannaford grocery stores in New England) up here in South Portland, Maine just recently had a union vote. The voting results were, 60 Yes (union yes) to 57 No (union no). The results, however, are not yet finalized and are being challenged by both the Teamsters (local 340, S Portland, Me.) as well as Hannaford.

The reason for the challenge is because of this: during the several weeks prior to the upcoming vote, Hannaford called up and offered several former, retired drivers (total of five) positions with the company in exchange for an agreed upon “No” vote in the upcoming union election, thereby giving Hannaford the possible majority….if counted, the additional five votes from the former drivers therefore brings the No vote total to 62, as opposed to the 60 Yes votes.

As it now stands, each side is challenging the other in National Labor Relations Board, or ‘NLRB’, hearings regarding the legalities of the vote, and this process could take a long time…..months and possibly years. Also, and in addition to, the Teamsters have filed, I believe, close to 50 charges against Hannaford regarding Hannafords’ anti-union attempts with the drivers leading up to the union election which include special one on one conferences, mandatory anti union meeting lectures, special teams that would meet all drivers at the door to convince them of the negative aspects of joining a union, harassing phone calls at home as well as at work… etc.

The local news did show up once, prior to the union election when there was a Hannaford driver pro union rally out by the front gate to the distribution center. If you’re interested, I believe you can see a video on youtube… just type in ‘Hannaford drivers union’ and it should come up.

It’s important to note the potential size of this entire event: Hannaford Transportation, as well as all of the Hannaford grocery stores is owned by a huge company called Ahold/Delhaize which is actually a company located in Belgium. Ahold/Delhaize also owns Food Lion, Stop and Shop, Giant and many other grocery companies on the east coast of the United States. They are right up there with Kroger and Walmart. Should this vote pass, it will be a very “big thing” indeed.

I’m not taking sides here, I’m just giving out information that seems to be somehow ignored, either purposefully or otherwise.

 

Only to those that care to quote and reply to my post on this thread.

 

How so?

 

Over 50% out of the 120 or so drivers seemed to think so.

 

Ok, I’ll be more specific: The “divide” had already been started long before the union came in; as over 50% of the drivers asserted on election day. It was the drivers themselves that approached the union, not the other way around.
Drivers claim of being mistreated by management as well as pay (and even, non-pay issues).
I suggest you google youtube, ‘hannaford drivers want union’ in your search bar, if you haven’t already done so.