Main Air Cargo Disruption at Chicago O’Hare Menace from Professional-Union Mandate

Air freight shippers might wish to take into account avoiding Chicago O’Hare till a nasty and probably very disruptive state of affairs there may be resolved.

A Chicago mandate pushed ahead by the town’s unpopular Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Service Staff Worldwide Union (SEIU) Native 1 might revoke the licenses of contractors who deal with air cargo on the main hub in the event that they don’t attain a signed settlement with SEIU by January twentieth. This could create large disruption for air cargo at O’Hare.

In a superb Freight Waves article in regards to the state of affairs, Eric Kulisch experiences:

Cargo airline executives warn it might take months to seek out alternative floor dealing with brokers, resulting in lengthy backlogs at different overstretched amenities and forcing them to hunt for different airports which may completely retain a few of the $200 billion value of annual imports and exports transferring via O’Hare.

“There isn’t any good short-term answer if this occurs and there might be a large airfreight disruption within the area impacting many companies,” mentioned Shawn McWhorter, Americas president for Nippon Cargo Airways, in an e mail message.

The businesses at risk of shedding their licenses are Alliance Floor Worldwide (AGI) and Swissport Cargo, in keeping with the article. They “management 65% of the cargo processed at O’Hare after AGI up to now 14 months acquired impartial Maestro Cargo Worldwide and Whole Airport Providers,” Kulisch experiences.

Large Unions and Large Authorities Flex Their Energy

Outrageous to me about this example is it’s not even about these firms making a cope with a union that represents their staff. SEIU approached these firms about unionizing and representing their staff, and the businesses are being coerced to work with the union below very pro-union phrases. The entire level is to pressure the large union right into a place the place it controls the roles and represents these employees.

In accordance with Kulisch’s article, SEIU represents virtually 2 million employees within the U.S. and Canada. With Mayor Lightfoot’s assist, the highly effective union seems to be like it should now additionally characterize cargo handlers at O’Hare. If the contractors who deal with that work don’t go alongside, they’re out. And, yeah, shippers get to see their air cargo get caught.

Kulisch provides info on “labor peace agreements” that employers are mainly pressured to signal and trigger this type of state of affairs:

Labor peace agreements, more and more pursued by native and state governments as a technique to improve union ranks, are contracts wherein employers waive sure rights below federal regulation throughout a union organizing marketing campaign. Concessions can embrace staying impartial throughout union recruiting, and permitting office entry. In trade, the union agrees to not interact in picketing, work stoppages, boycotts or different financial interference for a time frame. Most enterprise teams don’t like being coerced into making it simpler for unions to be acknowledged.

The Deck Is Stacked In opposition to Employers, Shippers, and Employees Who Don’t Need the Union

The SEIU makes a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} yearly off of dues. The SEIU Native 1 alone collected $28 million in dues and charges from its members in 2020, in keeping with experiences the union should file with the U.S. Division of Labor. The SEIU has greater than 150 native associates, in keeping with the union’s web site. Individuals for Honest Remedy (AFFT) experiences the SEIU collected $255 million in dues (not mentioning charges) in 2020 and spent 1 out of each 5 of these {dollars} on partisan politics “towards progressive candidates and causes.”

That $55 million on progressive candidates and causes is only the start. SEIU additionally “spent greater than $60 million in dues on ‘political actions and lobbying,’ which is 20% of its complete annual expenditures,” AFFT experiences.

It’s no surprise the union can foyer politicians into passing a mandate just like the one in Chicago.

It’s additionally no surprise why many employees may not wish to be pressured to hitch the union, particularly for the reason that union spends the biggest quantities of its cash on organizing new members, prefer it’s attempting to do at O’Hare, and politics, whereas in 2020 “solely 12% of complete spending went towards representational actions for current members, like negotiating contracts or dealing with grievance claims,” in keeping with AFFT. Employees who disagree with the insurance policies and politics of the politicians the SEIU helps seemingly wouldn’t wish to be paying into election efforts for these politicians with their dues both.

The possibility that employees may not vote to pay SEIU dues and let the union characterize them with out a coercive voting system may very well be the largest challenge conserving AGI and Swissport reaching a written settlement with SEIU. Kulisch experiences:

The first sticking level seems to be the SEIU’s insistence that or not it’s allowed to make use of signature playing cards as an alternative of a secret poll vote to safe recognition as the employees’ bargaining consultant, in keeping with a letter AGI despatched to clients explaining the state of affairs and in search of their help.

Getting employees to signal playing cards, a course of known as card verify, saying they help changing into dues-paying union members is less complicated and fewer dangerous than a conventional vote. If organizers can persuade greater than 50% of employees at a facility to signal playing cards, they win the correct to kind a union. Companies advocates argue card verify isn’t a dependable signal of somebody’s true curiosity in becoming a member of a union as a result of there isn’t any alternative to listen to opposing info, and folks usually will signal playing cards below stress or false guarantees to cease being harassed.

AGI and Swissport might not have a lot alternative however to let SEIU get it desires. The playing cards are stacked in opposition to the businesses. Krulisch experiences, “The airport authority notified them early final month that that they had till 5 p.m. on Jan. 19 to” agree on phrases of engagement with employees for SEIU.

Dangerous Scenario for Airliners, Air Cargo Firms, and Shippers

Airways and air cargo firms should scramble if AGI and Swissport lose their licenses, Krulisch experiences, and are urging airport officers to increase the deadline on these cargo dealing with firms. There may be nice concern that getting new cargo dealing with brokers might be extraordinarily costly. A Krulisch quoted a provider government who requested for anonymity due to the politics concerned:

“We’re going to get performed over on value,” he mentioned. “We count on the costs to go up and the service to go down. And we fear in regards to the security implications of transferring to a different agent in a short time.”

…

“The town must be serving to us discover different brokers and make it possible for different brokers don’t rip us off pricewise,” he mentioned.

With stress from the town serving to to create this downside, I doubt airways will discover a lot assist from the town resolving it.

Finally, if AGI and Swissport lose their licenses, air shippers will seemingly being paying extra for his or her cargo shipments via O’Hare whereas struggling delays from congestion. If SEIU will get the businesses staff below its union umbrella, it seemingly gained’t be lengthy earlier than the union pushes for greater pay, the place employees already obtain aggressive wages and advantages. This could push air freight costs up for shippers. And SEIU has proven repeatedly in its historical past that it’s not afraid to prepare labor motion, so delays for shippers throughout negotiations, like are repeatedly seen at West Coast ports throughout ILWU contract negotiations, wouldn’t be a shock both.