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October 6, 1999 11:14 AM, EDT

Overnite Transportation Co. Chairman Leo Suggs challenged the Teamsters union to a winner-take-all national vote by company workers on whether they want to join the union.

The union and the company, the largest non-unionized trucking firm in the less-than-truckload sector, have been enmeshed in a lengthy representation battle in recent years. The combatants don’t even agree on how many Overnite terminals the Teamsters represent, with the company saying 22 and the union claiming 37.

Against the backdrop of the Teamsters’ continuing threat to strike Overnite over alleged unfair labor practices, the antagonists are squaring off in a war fought principally in words: The union congratulates itself for the “rope-a-dope” strategy it is using in its corporate campaign to try to turn the company’s customers against it and exhaust its resources, while Overnite repeatedly dismisses the Teamsters as a union without significant support among the workers it wants to represent.

“It is time for the Teamsters to let the democratic process proceed,” said Overnite’s Suggs in calling for a companywide election Sept. 29. “It is not fair for the Teamsters to risk the job security of all Overnite employees when they actually represent so few.”

For the full story, see the Oct. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. .