Settlement Spotlights Alarming Unethical
Behavior by DHL Express
CHICAGO, April 24,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.
Contact:
Kara Deniz, (202)
497-6610
kdeniz@teamster.org
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SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters