Representatives on both sides of a labor dispute at Georgia-based Saia Motor Freight Line are looking towards a hearing later this month on allegations of labor law violations.

Saia has been involved in an hostile labor dispute for the past year as it fights Teamsters efforts to organize the company. On Jan. 29, a Fort Worth judge will hear National Labor Relations Board charges that Saia has committed 17 violations of labor law, mostly since the May election at its Grand Prairie, Texas, location. Charges include firings of at least seven pro-union employees, intimidation, and attempts to squelch union campaigns.
One of those fired was Fred Pfisterer, a member of Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas, according to the Dallas Observer. Pfisterer was a night shift freight loader and union backer at the Grand Prairie terminal who was fired last September.
Pfisterer has been fighting for Teamsters representation, first as an employee and now as an outsider fighting to get his job back, for about a year and a half. The four-year Saia veteran has sent letters to Saia President Richard O'Dell, a staunch opponent of the Teamster effort.
"I think it's ironic that truck lines have ... membership in the American Trucking Association to protect and make them stronger, yet you tell us that a union is bad for us," Pfisterer told the paper. "This is far from over."
The trucking company has kept its terminals union-free for 76 years. In November 1999, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Saia, charging that the company illegally interfered with and tried to intimidate pro-union employees at the Grand Prairie terminal.
Although the union lost a May 2000 election by eight votes, Local 745 may yet pull off a revote in the face of fierce opposition from trucking company, according to the paper. Over the last year, Michael Kline, the organizing chief for Local 745, has come very close to winning bargaining rights for Pfisterer and others working at the terminal.