ABF Freight, union extend labor pact
FORT SMITH - ABF Freight System Inc. and the Teamsters union have extended their current labor contract until June 30 as they wait for union workers to vote on a new labor proposal, the trucking company said Wednesday in a federal filing.
The proposed contract includes a 7 percent initial wage cut, but preserves most health, welfare and pension benefits, according to officials from the Fort Smith-based trucking company and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The two sides announced the tentative five-year contract May 3. Local union representatives unanimously endorsed the proposal May 20.
ABF Freight System’s 7,500 Teamsters union workers will vote in June, according to the union.
Votes will be counted “on or around June 27,” according to the filing Wednesday with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
ABF, the largest subsidiary of Arkansas Best Corp. of Fort Smith, has the highest labor costs in its industry, analysts say. Arkansas Best is ranked as the nation’s 13th largest for-hire carrier.
Jobless rate in NW Arkansas hits 5.1%
The unemployment rate in April was 5.1 percent in Northwest Arkansas, down from 5.3 percent in April last year, the only metropolitan area in the state with a decline in the unemployment rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.
Arkansas’ unemployment rate in April was 7.1 percent. The national unemployment rate was 7.5 percent last month.
Most of the other metropolitan unemployment rates in Arkansas rose only slightly last month. Other April unemployment rates in the state’s metropolitan areas, compared with April last year, were:
Little Rock, 6.2 percent, up from 6.1 percent.
Jonesboro, 6.5 percent, up from 6.4 percent.
Texarkana, 6.7 percent, up from 6.5 percent.
Hot Springs, 7.1 percent, up from 7.0 percent.
Fort Smith, 7.2 percent, up from 7.1 percent.
Pine Bluff, 9.2 percent, up from 8.5 percent.
Arkansas Index dips 2.88; USA Truck up
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 2.88 to 284.06 Wednesday.
“U.S. stocks pulled back on Wednesday after a lowered global growth forecast from the [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] and concerns over Fed stimulus,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
USA Truck rose 2.7 percent on three times its average volume.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 25 on 05/30/2013