Delivery drivers for Orlando logistics company score first union contract

Drivers for logistics company MBM Logistics in Orlando, who are organized with the Teamsters Local 385. Credit: courtesy of the Teamsters

Dozens of mail and package drivers in Central Florida organized with the Teamsters have secured a first union contract delivering higher pay, stronger job protections and fully employer-paid healthcare, according to the union.

The drivers, employed by logistics company MBM Logistics, first voted to unionize with the Teamsters Local 385 last September, despite their employer bringing in professional “union avoidance” consultants to persuade drivers to vote no.

According to a federal financial disclosure report, filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, MBM Logistics paid the anti-union consultants roughly $243,000 last year for the unsuccessful endeavor. It wasn’t enough to convince the drivers against unionization.

“Companies like to take their workers for granted, take them and just abuse them, and it’s not fair to the workers,” said Antonio Tavares, a five-year driver for MBM in Orlando who’s worked in the logistics industry for 27 years. Through the approval of their new union contract, Tavares told Orlando Weekly, he and fellow Central Florida-based drivers will now get a voice on the job.

They’ll also get higher pay and stronger benefits through the three-year agreement, and they get better job protection — so their employer can’t just fire them for no reason.

“Florida is a right-to-work state, and they just step all over you,” said Tavares, 47, who previously worked as a driver for shipping company DHL Express in New York. His current employer, MBM Logistics, is a contractor for DHL, a multinational company that ships to and from more than 220 countries worldwide.

“They treat you however they want to treat you,” Tavares remarked. “You could be the best worker in the station, and have no job tomorrow, just because.”

The protections they get under their new union contract, however, change that. The trucking and logistics industry — facing potential job loss to artificial intelligence, just like workers in the white-collar workforce — has been fertile organizing ground for the Teamsters. Their momentum has extended to so-called “nonunion” states like Florida, where roughly 94 percent of workers don’t have any kind of union representation at all.

“What we’ve been seeing in the South is a generational shift in how people think about unions,” Chuck Stiles, assistant director of the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division, shared in a statement earlier this year. “At a time when costs are only getting higher and corporations are hanging workers out to dry, people are following the path to prosperity that’s opened by becoming a Teamster.”

Made up of 1.3 million members across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, the Teamsters represent thousands of workers in Orlando alone, including drivers and warehouse workers for UPS, rental car companies like Avis and Hertz, character performers at Disney World (yes, including Mickey Mouse) and blue-collar workers in the Osceola County school system.

It’s a diverse union, to say the least. And drivers for MBM Logistics — who drive routes spanning from Orlando to Lakeland, Palm Bay and Ocala — are just some of the most recent members in Florida to join. Bill Hamilton, director of the Teamsters Express division, said the MBM drivers “faced the gauntlet of corporate greed but never caved.”

“They stood firm and demanded what they rightfully deserve,” he shared in a statement. “This is an excellent first contract that will deliver life-changing improvements for these workers and their families.”

According to the Teamsters, the contract for MBM drivers delivers a $5 per hour wage increase over the life of the contract, as well as expanded vacation time, seven new paid holidays, and health insurance coverage that’s paid for fully by the employer at no cost to employees.

For Tavares, the difference between having union representation and not having it is a big deal. At 47, he’s worked in logistics for more than two decades. And he’s no stranger to the Teamsters himself.

As a driver for DHL Express in New York, Tavares told the Weekly he was previously represented by the Teamsters before getting caught up in a round of layoffs. After that, he drove for transport company FedEx — a non-union employer — before getting a job with MBM, where workers similarly didn’t have a union. That was, at least, until the workforce of just over 100 drivers in Central Florida began organizing with the Teamsters last year.

“You put your life on the line out there on the road every day,” said Tavares, who’s used to putting in 12 to 13 hours per shift, depending on the day and his assigned routes. Without a union, he said, “You don’t have a voice. … There’s no one to stick up for you.”

Research has found that unionized workers earn 10 to 15 percent more on average than their non-union counterparts, and are more likely to have access to job benefits like paid sick days and more predictable scheduling (something Florida lawmakers last year banned local governments from requiring of employers). Unions can also advocate for safer working conditions through the collective bargaining process.

Will the union stick?

Notably, there is a process for workers to get rid of a union or strip a union of its certification as their bargaining agent, if they’re unhappy with their union representation.

This process is called decertification. Similar to filing a petition with the federal labor board for a union election, workers in the private sector who want to decertify their union must file a petition for decertification within a certain time frame that’s accompanied by signed cards of support from at least 30 percent of the workforce covered by the union.

Then, if all of the information is confirmed as accurate by National Labor Relations Board representatives (e.g., there are no fake or illegitimate cards submitted), the NLRB regional director will schedule a decertification election.

That’s relevant here because, according to federal records, drivers for MBM Logistics filed a petition to decertify the Teamsters Local 385 as their union in mid-November, just a few days before the drivers approved their first union contract.

Tavares, the driver who has a longer history with the Teamsters, said, “I’m honestly not even worried about it.” Their decertification election is scheduled for next week.

“We’re just so strong right now that I don’t have any doubt in my mind that the union is not going to be here for the future and the future contracts coming,” he said.

“People didn’t have hope that the union would come in and get something that will benefit not just the drivers that are here, [but] the future drivers, the other drivers that come down the line.”

He alleged that his employer, MBM Logistics, has been retaliating against drivers who support the union by giving them more difficult driving routes or shifting around their hours, while showing favoritism towards drivers who aren’t as supportive of the union.

As far as the decertification effort goes, Tavares attributes that to some drivers’ lack of experience with unions in Florida — since decades of anti-union policy, such as right-to-work, have degraded the labor movement’s power (and reputation) in the Sunshine State — and a lack of understanding of how the process of negotiating a first union contract works.

Negotiating a union contract, especially if you’re dealing with an anti-union employer, can take time. According to a 2022 analysis by Bloomberg, getting a first union contract can take 465 days — or well over a year — on average.

“People didn’t have hope that the union would come in and get something that will benefit not just the drivers that are here, [but] the future drivers, the other drivers that come down the line,” said Tavares.

He said he has 15, maybe 20 years ahead of him before he retires. But establishing a strong foundation for the younger drivers coming in, who want to make a career out of their job, is important to him. “It’s not right that these young kids come in here to a job that people can make careers out of, and they have to leave because it’s not beneficial, there’s nothing in it for them.”

This first contract, he said, is an opportunity. And he believes they have a lot of “silent supporters” who will vote to keep their union intact, and vote against decertification, next week. “We feel really confident that this is gonna prevail.”

Drivers for Breakthru Beverages, a beverage distribution company, are similarly organized with the Teamsters locally and are also facing a decertification attempt aided by legal counsel with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a known anti-union group.

Like MBM, records show Breakthru has an extensive (and expensive) history of hiring professional union-avoidance consultants to water down support for organizing a union.

According to federal records, Breakthru paid the union avoidance firm Action Resources more than $762,000 in 2024 just to prevent a successful union election for the Teamsters in Tampa, Orlando and four other cities in Florida, reportedly enlisting half a dozen professional union-busters for the job. Drivers for Breakthru, a “leading” distributor of mostly alcoholic beverages, just secured their first contract with the Teamsters, too.

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