ArcBest workers’ contract delayed
‘No’ votes a hitch in Teamster pact
Implementation of a national master freight agreement between ArcBest Corp. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been delayed after nine supplemental contracts were rejected by ABF Freight workers this week.
Employees on the East Coast, in Northern California and in the South were among those who voted against supplemental contracts. The 63-month master freight agreement received preliminary approval last month and was ratified by union workers Thursday, but it can’t go into effect until all supplemental terms are ratified.
ArcBest acknowledged the delay in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday and said the two sides would reconvene in the “near future” to address issues. But the transportation and logistics company maintained the master freight agreement is “affordable for the company and fair to employees.”
ArcBest and the Teamsters began negotiating a new national collective-bargaining agreement late last year for about 8,000 ABF Freight drivers, dockworkers, mechanics and office workers. The tentative agreement included wage increases for
drivers and dockworkers in each year of the contract, onetime bonuses for full-time workers and the restoration of a vacation week that had been eliminated in the previous contract.
Stephens Inc. said in a research note at the time that the details of the tentative agreement generally favored the Teamsters “more than what we previously would have expected.”
But Ken Paff, national organizer of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, said last month that there were concerns among workers about the proposed contract, such as an annual wage increase that wouldn’t keep pace with inflation.
Paff also said an agreement to maintain current pension
contribution rates creates concerns for some workers in Eastern states whose plans require increased contributions. The group accounts for less than 10 percent of ABF’s workers.
“Those workers are in danger of being kicked out of their pension plan,” Paff said Friday. “Or the plan is going to be squeezed into making some special rule for one company that every other company is going to demand.”
Paff said it’s not yet clear when concerns in each region will be discussed, but said the threat of a strike remains “low.”
Ernie Soehl, director of the Teamsters National Freight Division and co-chairman of the Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee, said in a statement late Thursday that the union realizes that “some of our ABF members have concerns that are unique depending
on their areas.”
“We will work with the Supplemental Committees in those areas to discuss those issues,” Soehl said in the statement. “We will then work to address supplemental issues with the employer and, if appropriate, seek to obtain revisions to the supplements for re-balloting so that the national master contract and all the supplements can take effect.”
A resolution is important for ArcBest, but the delay didn’t hurt the company one day after it topped analyst expectations by posting net income of $10 million, or 37 cents per share, in the first quarter.
ArcBest shares jumped 28 percent and surged to a 52-week high during trading because of the positive firstquarter results, which came a year after the company reported a loss of $7.4 million.
ArcBest shares rose $10.35 to close Friday at $47.30.