On December 1, ARCBest proudly announced the $26 million acquisition of Bear Transportation Services, a logistics nonunion operation. This is in line with ARCBest management’s plan of moving from LTL to nonunion logistics companies as a primary focus and revenue source.  

The latest purchase outside of unionized trucking came just three weeks after Wolfe Research reported that “ARCB stated a new multi-year goal for half its revenue to come from its fast-growing non-LTL segments, including Panther, truck brokerage, warehousing, ABF moving, and FleetNet.”

So the concessions that ABF Teamsters gave, supposedly to help ABF thrive, are being diverted to purchasing nonunion logistics and TL companies, such as Panther and Bear Transportation.

Should the IBT demand that 100% of the money given up by Teamsters in concessions be used to upgrade and build ABF’s own business? That kind of thinking will require a change in IBT leadership.