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Car hauler seeks injunction to temporarily halt strike(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 12--With the Teamsters' strike at Performance Transportation Services in its fourth day, the Michigan-based car hauler wants a federal judge to issue an order that would temporarily halt the walkout. U. S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara has scheduled a hearing for Friday afternoon. PTS and the Teamsters are at odds over whether the judge has the authority to issue the order that the bankrupt company is seeking. About 1,250 PTS workers are on strike against the Michiganbased car hauler, including about 140 who work at its terminal in the Town of Niagara. The strike began Monday morning. Each side has expressed a willingness to meet with the other, perhaps as early as today, but the status of such a meeting was unclear on Wednesday. PTS asked the Teamsters to call off the strike ahead of a meeting, but did not make that a precondition. The union said it would meet with PTS but refused to halt the strike. But it said it had not received a response from the company about meeting. A spokeswoman for PTS said a meeting between the two sides had not been confirmed, and an attorney for the company declined to comment on the situation. The Teamsters are negotiating in Cleveland with other members of a car haulers association. PTS earlier pulled out of those multi-employer contract talks, drawing criticism from the Teamsters. PTS' president and chief executive officer, Jeffrey Cornish, previously said he preferred to negotiate directly with the union because he felt his company was not going to receive the same agreement as PTS' top competitor, placing it at a disadvantage. Another issue fueling the union's ire: PTS received bankruptcy court approval from to impose a 15 percent wage cut on the hourly workers through the end of July. The labor contract between PTS and the Teamsters expired at the end of May. PTS contends the strike is illegal and is seeking an order from Arcara to halt the walkout, arguing the company's survival is at risk. Earlier this week, U. S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael Kaplan refused to issue such a restraining order. Cornish has portrayed the company's situation as dire in his messages to striking workers. He urged them to return to their jobs, with a letter this week under the heading, "Save your company and come back to work!!!" [email protected] To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |