Ten workers of Overnite Transportation filed suit against executives at parent company Union Pacific, alleging the company's battle with the Teamsters union has caused the stock price to plummet and endangered their retirement funds.

The suit alleges that executives and board members breached their fiduciary duties to the company and wasted corporate assets by planning and carrying out a concerted, unlawful anti-union campaign. This, the suit says, caused the value of Overnite to plummet from its 1986 purchase price of $1.2 billion to roughly $300 million today, while the company's revenues dropped from $64 million in 1994 to $28 million in 1999.
Among the defendants named in the suit are Union Pacific Chairman and CEO Dick Davidson, Overnite CEO Leo Suggs, and former top executives at Union Pacific and Overnite as well as UP's board.
Union officials said the lawsuit was "entirely without merit" and said it was part of the Teamsters' campaign against Union Pacific and Overnite. The union has been engaged in an unfair labor practices strike against less-than-truckload company since October 1999. Overnite had a 1999 fourth-quarter loss of $13 million, spending $3 million a week on extra security alone. However, the company posted $43 million in net income in 2000, an increase of $14 million from the previous year.