ABF, Teamsters seal new pact

A five-year labor agreement between ABF Freight System Inc. and the Teamsters has been ratified and will go into effect Sunday.

Members of the union’s ABF Master Negotiating Committee agreed to accept the deal with ABF during a Wednesday conference call. ABF’s contract with the labor union is scheduled to run until March 31, 2018, and comes after nearly a year of negotiations. Officials with both parties began meeting in December 2012 and agreed to eight extensions of the current National Master Freight Agreement while working out details of a new agreement.

According to the company, it will see a net savings of between $55 million and $65 million annually, thanks to the new contract with the Teamsters. The agreement calls for a 7 percent wage cut that will be recouped by employees by the final year of the contract.

“On behalf of all of the people and customers who depend upon ABF Freight, we are pleased that this final step in our lengthy contract negotiation process is now complete,” Arkansas Best President and Chief Executive Officer Judy McReynolds said in a statement. “This new labor agreement follows several years of sacrifice from our non-union employees. As the transportation and logistics market continues to rapidly evolve, we are grateful that our union employees have also recognized the need for ABF Freight to operate much more efficiently so that we can better serve our customers every day.”

A final hurdle was cleared when employees in the Central Region Local Cartage voted against authorizing a strike earlier this week and then agreed to the final of 27 supplemental agreements with ABF. Negotiating committee members then met to approve what ABF had introduced as its final offer of the supplemental contract.

A majority of Teamster employees approved the master freight agreement on June 27.Supplements in 26 of 27 regions were approved by Oct. 14. Savings to the company will come in the way of cuts to union and nonunion employee wages and benefits and other measures.

“We believe that this agreement helps protect our members’ health, welfare and pension benefits and also will give the company the ability to compete in a very tough trucking environment, which is good for ABF and the long term job security of our members,” negotiating committee co-chairman Gordon Sweeton said in a statement. “I would like to thank our ABF members for their patience and support during this difficult process.”

Business, Pages 25 on 10/31/2013

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