Minnesota Trucking Company Padlocks Doors, Shutting Out 95 Workers

[kscarbel2]

Transport Topics  /  November 28, 2016

Lakeville Motor Express in Roseville, Minnesota, abruptly padlocked its doors, locking out 95 truck drivers and dockworkers.

Workers said they did not receive their paychecks Nov. 23.

The surprised workers, who are part of Teamsters Local 120, found themselves picketing outside the company’s new sister location, Finish Line Express, in Maple Grove.

More than 30 workers on Nov. 23 picketed Finish Line Express, a business that union officials say is really the Lakeville Motor company operating under a different name and location.

In a letter to Teamsters spokesman Bill Wedebrand, Lakeville Motor owner and President Kevin Deming wrote: “Due to heavy financial losses, I have decided that effective [Nov. 19] Lakeville Motor Express Inc. shall cease all operations, close its business office and terminate all employees. Lakeville is out of cash and has no reserves to pay any amounts owed to employees or vendors at this time.”
Terminated workers said they have seen Lakeville Motor’s former supervisors and terminal managers working in the truck yard at the Maple Grove location. They also said they saw Lakeville’s trucks and freight at the new site.

Both companies specialize in less-than-truckload freight and had contracts with customers such as John Deere, U-Line, appliance makers and grocers, picketing workers said.

Lakeville Motor “didn’t close. The freight is still there. The trucks are still there. And the customers are still there. All they did was change the logo on the trucks” and terminate its unionized drivers and dockworkers without notice, said Virgil Christoffersen, the Teamsters business agent who represents the 95 employees who worked for Lakeville Motor Express.

“Now they are saying they won’t even pay their employees for work they had already done or benefits that have been accrued and are owed,” he said.

FLE Vice President Mike Sanford maintained there is no shared ownership between Finish Line Express and Lakeville Motor Express. He said FLE went into business shortly after it incorporated in May 2016. The company has 17 trucks, he said.

“We had nothing to do with the company closing,” Sanford said. “They asked us to pick up and deliver some freight. We don’t do all of it. … We’re a small company trying to do a job.”

Wedebrand said Sanford is one of several former executives with Lakeville Motor Express who are running the new trucking company.

“It’s the same management, same everything,” Wedebrand said. “It’s an alter-ego company.”

The union will file grievances against the companies with the National Labor Relations Board, said Tom Erickson, president of Teamsters Local 120. “If what they did isn’t illegal, it should be. Period. This is not right. The union will pursue all legal avenues available to stop this kind of business strategy from working.”

The owners of Lakeville Motor Express did not return messages.

Lakeville Motor truck driver Ryan Lang was supposed to receive his $3,010 paycheck via direct deposit the day before Thanksgiving. There was no deposit.

His boss called him at home telling him not to come in to work that night because Lakeville Motor Express had locked the gates and he was out of a job. A few days later, his boss was seen working at the Finish Line Express site in Maple Grove, Lang said.

Lang joined Lakeville Motor out of high school and expected to one day retire from the company. Now, he’s unsure how to make it to the end of the month.

“I’ve got my mortgage and two car payments, and I owe money for my kids’ hockey. I don’t know how I am going to pay for it all if I don’t get my paycheck,” Lang said. “I was hoping to buy my kids Christmas presents on Black Friday, but I will not be able to do that because I don’t have funds.”

Lang and other picketing workers said they may not have been so upset if they had been given notice or offered the choice of working at the Maple Grove location.

“Instead, we got nothing,” he said. “And I’ve worked there for 17 years.”

Monte Hanson, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said any employer laying off 100 workers must notify the state and give its workers 60 days’ notice. Employers with fewer than 100 workers “are encouraged to comply with the spirit of the law,” Hanson said.

Lakeville Motor Express did not file a WARN notice with the state, Hanson said. “We have people from DEED’s Dislocated Worker Program who are reaching out to both the company and the workers to get more details about what happened and to offer DEED’s services.”

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[Dirtymilkman]

Good for them. Hire people that wanna actually work. Pay them fair and it'll work. 

[TeamsterGrrrl]

But first, they need to pay the people who've been working for them.

[david wild]

I agree, they should be paid for the work they did. But didn't Arrow close it's doors with back pay owed? Didn't see anyone shedding a tear for them. Oops, non-union scab company, my mistake.   

[hurstscrambler]

Union or non-union, I would imagine that sucks for the employees, holidays fast approaching and all.  Andy

[Truck Shop]

Union or non-union, wages owed have to be payed, before banks or creditors get a dime in my state. Washington State.

Truck Shop

[Underdog]

I agree that's shitty business tactics. If finances were so bad at Lakeville, and Arrow, and countless others, management should have been able to see it coming and at least give employees a heads up. Seems a lot of closures occur around the holidays, too. Double shitty.

[kscarbel2]

Teamsters allege carrier abruptly closed, then reopened under new name without notifying employees

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  December 12, 2016

Following the sudden closure of a roughly 45-truck Minnesota-based carrier, the Teamsters Union has alleged the company reopened under a new name.

The Teamsters have led protests against the new Finish Line Express. The union claims FLE siphoned resources and customers from Lakeville Motor Express. The Teamsters say the two are sister companies. In recent months, FLE has received LME’s management, trucks and equipment, the Teamsters allege. They also say numerous customers have told them an FLE truck has arrived after they called LME.

Lakeville Motor Express employees found the gates locked when they arrived for work at the 95-year-old company in late November. Attached was a notice that stated, without elaboration, that the Roseville company “has permanently ceased all operations, effective Nov. 19.”

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith condemned LME’s actions at a Dec. 2 rally held by the Teamsters, which represent 90 of its 95 employees.

Earlier this fall, another regional LTL-carrier opened in Maple Grove after incorporating last May.

The carriers have not responded to media inquiries after the (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune published the initial account Nov. 26. FLE Vice President Mike Sanford told the newspaper his company was not connected to LME’s closing. Sanford, who until recently was Lakeville’s VP, denied that the companies share ownership.

That story also references a letter Teamsters received shortly after the shutdown from LME’s Kevin P. Deming, who blamed “heavy financial losses” for the closing. “Lakeville is out of cash and has no reserves to pay any amounts owed to employees or vendors at this time,” the Lakeside owner and CEO wrote.

The union now is attempting to discourage customers from “continuing to utilize sister companies LME and FLE.” Members advocate asking clients if they “support the type of business practices used to hurt 95 families at Lakeville Motor Express?”

They also have picketed FLE since the Lakeville shutdown. On Nov. 25, the National Labor Relations Board closed the company’s case against the Teamsters and accepted FLE’s request to withdraw the charge. A week earlier, the company had filed complaint with the board over union picketing.

Lakeville is not protected under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. WARN requires companies with at least 100 employees to notify workers 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and mass layoffs.

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[hurstscrambler]

It sounds like whoever was running the show at LME is not a very good business person, worse yet not very honest employer.  Andy

[BillyT]

Nothing surprising here! They've been doing it for years! I wouldn't be surprised if the non union truckload and LTL carriers have  an actual manual,part and parcel on reorganizing under a different name to break the union! I've said it before one of the few good things about growing old is you remember the past and can watch it repeat itself!KSB,keep us informed on this one although I see nothing unusual here! Anyone remember the union busting seminars of the 70s and 80s? Anyone remember when "Cornflake" went out of business over a holiday weekend and the employees returned to locked doors? Before anyone gets the idea I'm a " knee jerk unionist"  forget it! I just support fair play and wages! Interesting how corporate America always engineers in a loophole! So unless you have 100 workers you don't have to give your employees 60 days notice that they're losing their jobs! Are you afraid they will quit before you can get the last hour of ( unpaid) labor out of them? Could they have tightened their belts ad maybe cut back their Christmas expenses? It's pretty damn obvious this was planned for a long time,forgive my naivete, but couldn't they have at least established a pre closing fund to pay their employees wages? I had an employer who drove seventy miles to give me my pay because he knew I had a mortgage payment! This dude only owned five trucks and he gave me a 500 dollar Christmas bonus drove seventy miles to surprise me with that! Corporate ethics my favorite oxymoron! There is an old method of dealing with pricks like lME it's called boycott! Since they have some free time being unemployed, boycott the customers of finish line buy a Husgvarna tractor instead of a John Deere,and tell them why, don't  patronize the grocers who use Finish line,and tell them why ! Social media is a powerful thing use it to make the public aware of what's going on! (Personal note,I refuse to own a smart phone or go on Facebook,but I'm in the minority) No pun intended!😁 p.s. For what a good smart phone sells for I bought an American made AC DC  welder cash that I can build stuff with! On the minus side I don't have 300 " friends" I've never met!😁