Teamsters picket Washington-based trucking company

Union spokesman Al Hobart says the company sought to make union members and retirees begin paying for part of their medical coverage. That benefit has been funded entirely by the trucking company.

The Associated Press

9/24/2008

AUBURN, Wash. — Picketers are carrying Teamsters strike signs outside Oak Harbor Freight operations in the Pacific Northwest.

Workers walked out Monday night after the union and company failed to reach agreement on medical benefits. Union spokesman Al Hobart says the company sought to make union members and retirees begin paying for part of their medical coverage. That benefit has been funded entirely by the trucking company.

The freight hauler says it will continue to operate. A company spokesman, Mike Hobby, says Oak Harbor has 1,300 employees in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and about 550 of them are Teamsters.

A union spokesman, Brian Davis told KIRO Television in Seattle that picketing will extended to businesses where nonunion truck drivers make deliveries.