Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
Aunt Millie’s Bakeries has informed 35 transport drivers that it will contract with a New York company to handle its trucking.
Transervice Logistics Inc., of Lake Success, N.Y., will take over the work starting Jan. 24, Aunt Millie’s spokeswoman Melissa Dunning said Monday.
The drivers will keep their jobs but will be employed by Transervice. They’ll work under the contract Teamsters Local 414 negotiated with Fort Wayne-based Aunt Millie’s. That pact pays drivers more than $20 an hour plus benefits and runs until May 2011, Dunning said.
Aunt Millie’s drivers became worried in February when the company opened talks with Ryder System Inc. about taking over transport of its products. Aunt Millie’s was unable to come to terms with Ryder, Dunning said.
The contract with Transervice isn’t intended to cut employees or pay, Dunning said. It’s intended to allow the company to focus on baking. Aunt Millie’s employs about 1,700 throughout the Midwest.
“We have decided that trucking is not our core business,” Dunning said, citing liability, capital costs, maintenance and other related issues.
Transervice President Ed Flannigan also tried to calm drivers’ fears.
“Transervice is predominantly a union company,” he said. “I go back with the Teamsters and evolved with them for over 40 years.”
As the current contract with Aunt Millie’s transport drivers nears expiration, Flannigan wants to negotiate a deal that runs for five years. That’s the period of the typical contract Transervice strikes with unions, Flannigan said.
Aunt Millie’s and Transervice are privately held and don’t disclose annual revenue.
Transervice employs about 1,700 in the United States, Flannigan said.
Officials with Teamsters Local 414 couldn’t be reached Monday.
Flannigan said he has been in touch with leaders of the local and hopes to meet with the drivers next week.
About 220 Aunt Millie’s route-sales drivers, loaders and merchandisers belonging to Teamsters locals across southern Michigan went on strike Sept. 4 when contract negotiations broke down. They returned to work Sept. 13 when their union agreed to a new deal.
Dunning said Transervice is only taking over Aunt Millie’s transport business – hauling products over the road in truck rigs.
