Local 500 Wins $50,000 Arbitration Award for SYSCO Driver

Local 500 Wins $50,000 Arbitration Award for SYSCO Driver

Fight Yields Back Pay, Benefits for Philadelphia Worker

December 19, 2001

(Washington, D.C.) – After a bitter struggle with SYSCO, the huge institutional food distributor, Teamsters Local 500 won an arbitration that will award full back pay and benefits approximating $50,000 to an unfairly terminated driver.

“SYSCO constantly goes for the jugular vein” of its unionized workforce, said Frank Gillen, President of Local 500 in Philadelphia. “They should never have fired this guy.”

Omar Gordamy’s truck struck an unmarked overpass after he was redirected to the front of a hotel at which he was making a delivery. Management refused to depict the incident as an accident and fired him on May 8, 2001.

Gordany will receive back pay and contributions to health, welfare and two pension plans for 31 weeks and four days of lost work and overtime.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States and Canada.