Judge blocks sale of trucks by Covington company

A judge has temporarily blocked a Covington trucking firm that lost a major contract with MeadWestvaco Corp. from selling its excess trucks and trailers to the company that now has the contract because of a dispute over whether the second company must hire the first company’s union employees.

Fifty-nine people employed by Team Carriers Inc. in Covington were due to lose their jobs Monday as a result of Team Carriers losing a contract to provide the MeadWestvaco mill with local trucking services, according to the judge’s ruling Friday.

The United Steelworkers union argued in court it had an agreement that if Team Carriers discontinued its operations, Team Carriers had to make the sale, lease or transfer of its operations to another company contingent on the other company honoring the union agreement, the ruling said.

Team Carriers struck a deal with Garten Trucking, which outbid Team Carriers for the MeadWestvaco contract, to sell it some trucks and trailers worth up to $250,000, the ruling said.

Earlier this month, the union sued to halt the planned equipment sale and get a court order sending matters raised by the case to expedited arbitration.

Judge Samuel Wilson temporarily blocked the sale, acting within powers granted to the court to freeze the status quo when there’s a labor dispute subject to arbitration. However, Wilson declined to order expedited arbitration and required the union to post a $250,000 bond to protect any party that might be harmed by his decision.

In a news release, Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers International, championed the union’s resolve to go to court. “Nobody should ever underestimate the depth of our union’s commitment to protect our hard-working members,” he said.

Team Carriers told the judge that Garten Trucking is not its successor as contemplated in the contract language and that Team Carriers isn’t selling its business to Garten “but simply a few trucks and trailers,” the ruling said. Even though it agreed to enter arbitration, Team Carriers disagrees with the union’s position, the ruling said.

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