DHL workers at the company’s largest US air hub, CVG Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky, are now majority union after air sort workers joined Teamsters Local 89 this week.

1,300 sort workers join 1,200 ramp-and-tug workers at DHL-CVG who organized with the Teamsters last year and settled a contract after a successful 12-day strike in December.

“We fought hard and we’re proud to finally be recognized as Teamsters,” said James Lamb, a DHL sort worker and member of the organizing committee. 

Solidarity: Pass it On

The victory builds on new tactics that the Teamsters are using to organize large units. A card-check agreement was negotiated as part of the strike settlement for the ramp workers. 

When ramp workers extended picket lines to DHL hubs across the country, thousands of existing DHL Teamsters at major hubs like Chicago and Los Angeles honored the picket lines and got the company back to the table. Then, it was the ramp workers’ turn to pass on that solidarity by negotiating card check for the sort workers who they pass packages off to in the CVG facility.

The new CVG sort Teamsters are covered under the contract negotiated for the ramp workers, but they will negotiate with DHL on sort-specific issues.

Sort workers head into these negotiations with a stronger hand: The company already knows that DHL workers mean business and are ready to strike to win their demands.

Next-Door Neighbors Watching

CVG is also the largest US air-cargo hub for another behemoth firm—Amazon. Amazon’s “KCVG” air hub processes nearly a million packages a day.

Workers organizing at KCVG affiliated with Teamsters Local 89 in April. Momentum has been building: workers held a one-day ULP strike in July that scrambled Amazon’s air operations during Prime week. Petitions and marches on the boss have forced concessions from management and sent Amazon executives scrambling to recruit more union-busters.

The win at DHL is building confidence for Amazon workers at KCVG. DHL workers stood up to the same illegal union-busting tactics that are now being used on Amazon KCVG workers—and won.