After over a year of fighting the new owners of Cook-DuPage Transportation, National Express, Teamsters Local 727 finally achieved a much-deserved victory when Arbitrator Peter Meyers ruled in favor of the Union. The original grievance that initiated this arbitration process was filed in June 2015 on behalf of D-Van drivers being paid the significantly lower car rate. Though this grievance was settled in December 2016, the Company almost immediately disregarded the signed agreement and continued paying D-Van drivers the car rate. As a result of National Express dba CDT’s blatant violation of the settlement, the Union immediately filed a new grievance and pursued it to arbitration.

Now, Arbitrator Meyers has ruled, “that all drivers who were paid less than the van driver rate since the effective date of the (December 2016) Settlement Agreement are hereby awarded back pay in the amount of the difference between what they were paid and the van driver rate that they should have been paid.”

“I want to thank the members of CDT for their patience in this long, tough fight,” said John Coli Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727. “Local 727 will not stand by when employers renege on agreements. We will not be deterred and we will not give up the fight until our members’ issues are resolved.”

The Union is in the process of gathering information on the hours worked by D-Van drivers paid the car rate since January of 2017 to determine the amount they will receive in back pay.

The Arbitrator specifically stated in his award that, “any side agreement between the Company and an individual employee calling for a lesser rate of pay for any van driver simply is prohibited under Article 24.1 of the collective bargaining agreement.”

Nothing in this article should be read as Teamsters Local 727’s waiver of any legal argument, position or additional grievance. Teamsters Local 727 does not forfeit its right to make any and all supplemental arguments.

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