Deadline Nears For Amoroso's Baking Drivers To Accept 'Contractor' Status
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The deadline is looming for Amoroso's Baking Company delivery truck drivers. They have until this weekend to decide whether to buy their routes from the company, and at least half the drivers face layoffs if they don't buy a route.
The current union contract with the drivers expires Sunday, and Amoroso's had hoped it would be the last. The company wants to shift to a new distribution model in which all of their drivers would be private contractors (see previous story).
But after a job action last month that disrupted bread and roll deliveries for a day, company spokesman Christine Reimert says Amoroso's agreed to a transition period for the new model.
"There would be a number of positions that would be in place over several years before all of the routes would become independent distributors," she told KYW Newsradio today.
Reimert declined to say how many positions would remain, but Teamsters leader Bob Ryder says it's not enough -- because he thinks all the drivers should remain employees.
"These drivers have been working for him (owner Ron Amoroso) for 20 years, they have good relationships with the customers, they're good bread men, they're dependable," he said. "He wants to put a bunch of nobodies on those routes. He deserves what he gets."
Ryder says he'll present the contract proposal to his members but won't recommend that they approve it.
Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio 1060
