Leaving pact, ABF tells Teamsters

LITTLE ROCK — ABF Freight Systems Inc. of Fort Smith has told the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that it intends to withdraw from the National Master Freight Agreement that governs relations between trucking companies and the union.

In a letter sent earlier this month to the union, ABF said it would not authorize Trucking Management Inc., which represents trucking firms, or any other association or group to negotiate on its behalf. The current master agreement expires March 31, 2013.

“We stand ready to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement applicable only to ABF to replace the NMFA at its expiration,” Roy Slagle, ABF president and chief executive officer, said in the letter. “ABF hereby requests that the IBT [Teamsters] commence bargaining with ABF for the purpose of entering into a new [collective bargaining agreement] for ABF.”

Stacy Fox, principal officer for Teamsters Local 373 in Fort Smith, said the company has a current union agreement that it has tried to get out of in the past.

“If they negotiate a separate agreement, who’s to say they wouldn’t try to get out of that one, too?” Fox said.

Last year, ABF contended in a lawsuit against the Teamsters that ABF’s main unionized competitor, YRC Worldwide Inc., gained union concessions that gave YRC an unfair competitive advantage. The benefit to YRC was estimated at $600 million a year through pay cuts to hourly workers and postponed pension contributions.

ABF employees rejected the company’s attempt to negotiate similar cuts. Both companies operate in the less-than-truckload segment of the market.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed — for the second time — a lawsuit brought by ABF against the Teamsters, seeking damages. The suit claimed that union concessions gave YRC an unfair competitive advantage. Wright said ABF had failed to state facts that would allow the court to appoint a tribunal to hear its grievance.

David Humphrey, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications at Arkansas Best Corp. — ABF’s parent company — said in an e-mail that the company is preparing for negotiations with the Teamsters for the next contract.

“There isn’t much to report at this point as formal negotiations with the Teamsters on a new contract have not been scheduled. Historically, they have begun in the fall prior to the conclusion of the existing agreement,” he said.

Arkansas Best’s stock closed Thursday at $9.95, down 36 cents, on the Nasdaq. The company’s stock has traded between $9.75 and $22.79 in the past year.