Settlement Spotlights Alarming Unethical Behavior by DHL Express

(CHICAGO) – Members of Teamsters Local 705 have won a $8.7 million racial discrimination lawsuit against DHL Express.

The suit, filed in 2010 by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), revealed DHL subjected Black Teamsters in Chicago “to different terms and conditions” and to “less desirable, more difficult and/or more dangerous dock and route assignments than white employees.”

Since at least 2005, DHL has violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by determining Local 705 members’ job assignments by race. As part of the settlement, DHL entered into a consent decree with the federal government. Former EEOC Vice Chair and Commissioner Leslie Silverman has been appointed the Consent Decree Monitor to oversee DHL’s implementation of the decree’s terms.

“The outcome of this lawsuit was more than a decade in the making, but our members stayed the course and fought for their rights,” said Juan Campos, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 705 and Teamsters International Vice President At-Large. “DHL’s racist behavior is completely unacceptable. I am proud of our rank-and-file Teamsters for fighting for what is right and holding this company accountable for its disgusting conduct.”

Nationwide, the Teamsters represent more than 6,000 workers at DHL. Over the years, the company has shown an alarming disregard for workers’ rights and U.S. labor law. At the company’s largest hub in the United States, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), supervisors have referred to workers as “inmates” and treated them as if the company was running a prison. In 2022, a Black worker at CVG was pulled off a forklift by a white supervisor and physically assaulted. DHL still employs the supervisor, despite the violent incident.

“The mistreatment of Chicago Teamsters lays bare DHL’s indifference to human rights and basic laws in the U.S.,” said Bill Hamilton, Director of the Teamsters Express Division and Teamsters Eastern Region International Vice President. “DHL is an unethical corporation that has no respect for the workers who make its executives so rich.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

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