Press Releases
Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Death in the Warehouse: XPO Workers Demand End to Toxic Culture at Global Logistics Giant
16 April 2018
XPO workers and union activists from Belgium, France, Spain, the UK and USA will hold a press conference in Paris to reveal further evidence of worker abuse at the company.
The action is part of an ongoing global campaign against XPO Logistics, which is under fire for accusations of sexual harassment, dangerous working conditions, a death at an XPO site, gender pay discrimination, exploitative employment arrangements and anti-union activity.
Several European and American workers will be in Paris, including Ryan Janota – a former XPO driver from Aurora, Illinois, sacked by XPO for his union activism.
Elizabeth Howley, who works at the XPO warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, where a worker recently died, describes the conditions workers face: “XPO management forces workers to remove their bras at the security checkpoint, we see snakes, rats, lizards and bugs. We don’t have any nurses or defibrillators, and no one is allowed to do CPR, even if certified. A co-worker died and we had to work around her body. We don’t deserve to be treated like this. No one does.”
XPO is growing aggressively all over Europe, often by buying up local companies like France’s huge Norbert Dentressangle. The European HQ is in Lyon. Now European workers are facing issues just like their colleagues in the USA:
- In France and Belgium, XPO is delaying the payment of overtime.
- In Spain, women employees who work a shortened day due to family responsibilities – a legal right in Spain — have been refused further training or advancement. Women employers are doing the same work for less pay – not even work of equal value, but the same work.
- In the UK, XPO’s gender pay gap report revealed female workers in their transport business earn on average 14% less per hour.
A spokesperson for Force Ouvrière (FO) said: “It is now clear that the problems in XPO are not limited to the American workforce. XPO Logistics is a rotten employer all over Europe, and this is a priority for unions in France, Spain, Belgium, the UK and across the EU. By standing together, we can stop the rot at XPO in Europe, and make the company change its ways in the USA.”
American media has recently reported on the accusations of sexual harassment and dangerous working conditions at XPO. For example, see this television report: https://goo.gl/v7Hvjx
The press conference is being jointly hosted by FGTE-CFDT from France and the Teamsters from the USA.
Location: FGTE-CFDT, 47 Ave Simon Bolivare, 757950 Paris.
Time: 1600 CEST.
Speakers: XPO workers from the USA and Europe, French and American union activists.
*It will be broadcast live at Facebook.com/itfglobal
END
For more information and for interviews with workers and union activists at the meeting contact:
Bryn Watkins, European Transport Workers’ Federation.
+32 470 93 05 90
Andy Khan-Gordon, International Transport Workers’ Federation
+44 (0)7711 356 964
Information on the ITF’s XPO global leadership group: https://goo.gl/tePRXG
Information on the Teamsters XPO campaign in the USA: https://goo.gl/26HK8o
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) creates borderless solidarity among transport workers in every corner of the globe. We support 670 affiliate trade unions in 140 countries, representing 19.7 million workers.
The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) embraces transport trade unions from the European Union, the European Economic Area and Central and Eastern European countries. The ETF represents more than 5 million transport workers from more than 230 transport unions and 42 European countries