In early February after reaching a new tentative agreement, the United States' seventh-largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier ABF Freight System said late last week that its new five-year ABF National Master Freight contract with the International Brotherhood of Truckers had its ABF Teamster representative employees "overwhelmingly approved".
ABF officials said the new deal provides Teamsters employees with increased wages and benefits, two additional sick days, and Martin Luther King Jr. paid vacation, among other benefits.
ABF added that as part of its negotiation process with the International Brotherhood of Truckers, it also negotiated 27 regional supplemental agreements.
"The voting results showed that 27 of the 25 supplements also passed. The negotiating teams of ABF and IBT met on Friday and reached new preliminary agreements on two outstanding additions, "it said. "Teamster employees will have a vote on both supplements, which will take place next week. ABF remains open for business as usual as the negotiating team is working on the last two remaining additions. During this process, ABF employees will continue to work under current contract terms. Additional information on the remaining two supplements will be provided as they become available.
According to ABF, following the interim agreement reached in early June, the National Freight Union Consultative Committee (TNFINC) and ABF sent the new agreement to more than 8600 ABF members across the country, including truck drivers and dock workers. The current five-year agreement expires on June 30.
According to the union, as previously reported, once approved, the truckers said the proposed five-year contract would provide members with wage increases as well as benefits and working conditions improvements.
Teamster representatives plan to meet in Chicago next week to review the tentative agreement before sending it to members for a ratification vote.
"At the beginning of the negotiations, we promised to fight for our members in the ABF. I can confidently say that's what we did. This preliminary agreement is a testament to our hard work, strength and determination at the negotiating table, "Truckers Freight Division Director John A. Murphy, who spearheaded the negotiations, said.
"I would like to thank the entire negotiating team for their hard work and commitment throughout this negotiation process, especially our serving rank and file members," Murphy added.
On 12 May, the truck drivers' union said negotiations with ABF had resumed, but that "the two sides currently remain far apart on economic issues". While the details are unclear, this final agreement certainly addresses or mitigates these issues.
The final hurdle involves the use of external non-union transport, driverless trucks and internally oriented dashcams-all of which are historically non-negotiable items for truckers.
ABF has more than 8,600 union members, second only to UPS and Yellow Corp. The third largest employer of truck drivers. These workers are entitled to an annual pay increase of about 2 per cent. ABF's employees also enjoy a profit-sharing agreement that pays an additional 3 percent a year. Due to the favorable pricing environment in the LTL industry and other factors, this side-by-side transaction has been initiated in each of the past two years. "
Source: Maritime Magazine