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The Truth Finally Comes Out: XPO Exploring Sale of Its Business Units

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XPO Logistics is exploring the possible sale or spinoff of one or more of its business units, according to a story published January 15, 2020 in The Wall Street Journal.

A surprise? Not at all. Since 2016, workers at XPO have organized as Teamsters, knowing full well that this was a possibility sooner or later.

After all, XPO CEO Bradley Jacobs’ business model is to buy companies, slash costs at the expense of employees, and then sell for huge profits. He has done this in the oil, waste and equipment-rental industries at Amerex Oil Associates, Hamilton Resources, United Waste Systems and United Rentals.

Now he’s on the verge of doing it at XPO.

The only people he has to deal with during a possible sale are the workers who are represented by labor unions. This means the XPO workers in Bakersfield and Vernon, California; Miami, FL; Cinnaminson and Trenton, New Jersey; Aurora, Illinois and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, all of whom voted to form their union as Teamsters. Jacobs must also deal with workers in Europe who belong to various unions.

In other words, the unionized workers have a seat at the table at XPO, while non-union workers will be left on their own and at the whim of XPO.

The workers at Miami and Vernon, California have kept their Teamsters union representation across the Con-way-XPO transaction in 2015. In both those units, the Teamsters local unions filed charges with the NLRB demanding that XPO recognize the unions as the successor employer to the Con-way Freight bargaining obligation. In each case, the NLRB issued orders confirming continued Teamsters representation of these workers after the sale to XPO. The Teamsters have an excellent record of protecting workers’ rights across these types of financial transactions involving XPO. 

Jacobs cannot be trusted. In 2016, shortly after he said he would never sell XPO’s truckload operation, he did just that, for $558 million.

There is no time like the present for unorganized XPO workers in the United States to take the step forward in forming their union as Teamsters. There are simply too many unknowns right now to risk not having a strong voice on the job.

DO NOT RISK BEING LEFT OUT IN THE COLD—ORGANIZE NOW!