Your Eyes and Ears at the Contract Vote Counts
June 20, 2013: The vote count began today on the UPS and UPS Freight contracts and will begin on June 27 at ABF. Rank and file observers will be present at the vote counts thanks to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.
The UPS count is expected to take up to a week to complete. No counting took place on Thursday, and will not begin until possibly late Friday, as it will take considerable time to sort the ballots by local union and verify eligible voters.
The counts will be overseen by the Independent Supervisor, Ed Hartfield.
Meet the UPS Observers
In addition to observers sent by several local unions and IBT officials, there will be truly independent observers, thanks to previous legal action by Teamsters for a Democratic Union.
Mark Timlin, a package car driver in New Jersey Local 177, will be an observer. Brother Timlin initiated the highly-successful Facebook page "Vote No on the UPS Contract," which has 3,600 members.
Another observer will be Nathan 'Jumbo' Daniels, a 22.3 worker at the Philadelphia air hub and Local 623 steward.
A third observer, from the Southern Region, is Ron Beard, a feeder steward and member of Dallas/Ft. Worth Local 767.
As union votes, ABF-pact critics arise
Teamsters union leaders are urging more than 7,000 of their members to approve a new, five-year contract with ABF Freight System Inc. in Fort Smith, one of the nation’s largest trucking firms.
But as members spend June casting their ballots, they’re also hearing voices critical of the agreement the trucking company says it must have to survive.
“I want to ask everybody to endorse this agreement, back this agreement,” International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James Hoffa said during a recent telephone conference call to members.
“This is an agreement we can be proud of,” Hoffa said in a recorded message. “I urge you to vote ‘yes’ when you get your ballots.”
But Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a group of union members often critical of Hoffa’s administration, featured a photograph on its website Tuesday of four ABF workers wearing T-shirts with “Vote No” printed on them.
The website also quotes members who are critical of the union’s proposed concessions, which include a 7 percent pay cut the first year. The cut is followed, however, by pay raises of 2 percent each for the next three years, then 2.5 percent the last year.
“They say we catch up over the life of the contract, but that just gets us back to where we stand now,” a North Carolina driver was quoted as saying on the Teamsters for a Democratic Union website. “With the cost of living rising over the next five years, we gain nothing.”
The group’s national organizer, Ken Paff, said Tuesday that “the contract may well pass.”
Paff said a vote against the contract could allow the union to pursue a strike against ABF. And Paff says that possibility probably would push more Teamsters to vote in favor of the contract. A strike, said Paff, “would be devastating to both sides.”
The proposed contract was approved unanimously May 20 by leaders of 160 local Teamster unions that serve ABF, the Teamsters announced last month.
During a June 3 conference call to members, Teamsters chief economist Mike Conyngham said the union has “conducted an extraordinary amount of financial due diligence over the past nine months, reviewed hundreds of public and nonpublic documents.”
“The only conclusion we could come to is that the operating losses at ABF are real and they will continue unless we do something,” Conyngham said. “The changes in this contract, we believe, both economic and operational, are necessary for the survival of this company. They represent the minimum necessary to see this company through.”
ABF is the largest subsidiary of Arkansas Best Corp., ranked the nation’s 13th largest freight carrier. Arkansas Best Chief Executive Judy McReynolds has said the contract would allow the company to restore profitability. Arkansas Best reported a net loss of $7.7 million for 2012 and $13.4 million for this year’s first quarter.
As the Teamsters noted in the conference call, ABF spokesman Kathy Fieweger said Tuesday that “the terms of the new contract provide the minimum level of relief needed for ABF to get back on track. We hope all of our union employees will consider their choice very carefully and ratify the agreement that was achieved after many months of hard work between the two parties.”
A Teamster spokesman declined to comment further Tuesday.
Teamsters-ABF contract negotiations started in December and reached a tentative agreement May 3. To be ratified, Teamsters members have to approve it by a simple majority.
In addition to changes in pay rates, details of the proposed contract include:
Loss of one week vacation across the board.
The current health and welfare benefits. Introduction of work-rule flexibility, such as supervisors handling dock pickups if no dockworker is on duty. Profit-sharing bonus if operating ratio reaches 96 percent or lower.
ABF Teamsters Discuss Contract
June 10, 2013: ABF Teamsters have their ballots and are voting. Just as importantly, they are discussing the proposed concessions and the future of Teamsters at ABF.
Some are outspoken that the concessions go too far. "They say we catch up over the life of the contract but that just gets us back to where we stand now. With the cost of living rising over the next five years, we gain nothing," commented Emmet Ramsay, a road driver out of Winston-Salem. "I vote Hell No on this contract."
The Atlanta road stewards are sporting Vote No shirts. They wore them to their Local 728 meeting and many are wearing them out on the road.
Meanwhile, the Hoffa administration is selling the agreement and also creating some confusion with their incompetence. The ballot instructions actually state "a No vote on the blue ballot is a vote to accept the proposed ABF National Master Freight Agreement." (!!)
They can't check the wording in the ballot mailing; perhaps that explains why they didn't notice the new language in the tentative agreement giving the company the power to use any electronic device to fire or suspend Teamsters without warning and without corroboration.
Hoffa Seizes Chicago Contracts
The Hoffa Administration has seized control of the independent Chicago Local 705 and 710 contracts with ABF, dissolved their contracts, and merged them into the national contract vote.
Hoffa and Gordon Sweeton know that Local 705 and Local 710 members will not vote for concessions.
James Hoffa Sr. signed the first National Master Freight Agreement in 1964. His son has killed it. Now he has killed another tradition: the independent power of the big Chicago locals, which often have taken stronger Teamster positions.
The ballots are due back on June 27. Teamsters who need a duplicate ballot should contact their local union as soon as possible. There will be independent rank and file observers at the ballot count.
Key changes in the proposed Tentative Agreement include:
- Immediate 7 percent wage reduction.
- 2 percent wage increases in the following three years; 2.5 percent in the last year of five-year contract.
- Loss of one week vacation across the board.
- A Memorandum of Agreement to allow subcontracting of road work ("Purchased Transportation") up 6 percent of total miles (if limit is enforceable).
- Health and welfare benefits maintained.
- Pension contributions only to the extent required to protect pension benefits (this means no increase in contributions to the Central States or Western Conference Funds for the next five years).
- Management may use audio, video, electronic tracking devices to fire employees for "stealing time," without corroboration and without a warning letter! (New section of Article 26).
- Cost of Living clause limited and with 5¢ maximum possible.
- Coffee breaks limited to 10 minutes (Addendum B).
- Working across classifications expanded (Addendum C; and supplements). Drop and hooks, etc.
- Supervisors can handle dock pick-ups if no dock worker is on duty (Article 3).
- Profit sharing bonus if operating ratio gets to 96 percent or better.
- Local grievance panels eliminated.
There are additional changes in the supplements.
Read the agreement. Discuss it with your fellow Teamsters. Cast your vote.
New Jersey Truck Driver Bill Moves to Governor
A work arrangement in New Jersey's short-distance and parcel delivery trucking industry would be legally presumed to be an employer-employee relationship, under a bill that received final legislative approval in the New Jersey Senate May 30.
The Truck Operator Independent Contractor Act (A. 1578), which passed along party lines by votes of 21-17 in the Senate and 43-30 in the Assembly, will be considered next by Gov. Chris Christie (R), who has 45 days to act on it.
"This is about employers who are operating outside the rules and taking advantage of their drivers in ways that can deny them basic rights," Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D), who sponsored the measure in the Senate, said in a statement. "Employee misclassification has been used to refuse workers the protections of state and federal laws," such as unemployment and disability benefits and the protection of overtime and workers compensation laws, she said.
The New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce said it opposes the union-backed measure "because it prohibits trucking companies from continuing a pre-established relationship with independent owner-operators through a federal lease and could potentially drive up the cost of goods throughout New Jersey."
The legislation applies to drivers of small package delivery vehicles and operators of drayage trucks, which are defined as trucks that weigh more than 33,000 pounds and operate on or pass through port or intermodal rail yard property to load, unload, or transport cargo.
The bill provides that parcel delivery and drayage truck drivers may not be classified as independent contractors unless the firm using their services can establish to the satisfaction of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development that the drivers are free from the day-to-day control or direction of the firm, that the service they provide is outside the firm's usual course or place of business, and that the driver is customarily engaged in an independent trade or occupation.
A firm that misclassifies a driver and fails to pay wages, benefits, or taxes required for employees under various state laws would be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to 90 days in prison for each week an employee is misclassified.
Intentional misclassification of these workers would be punishable by a fine of up to $15,000 and imprisonment up to one year for the first violation. The penalties would double for subsequent willful violations.
The penalties are the same as those imposed under the state's Construction Industry Independent Contractors Act. The measure also prohibits retaliation against any worker who files a complaint or reports suspected violations.
Teamster Future in Trucking
May 24, 2013: For the first time in 49 years, there is no national master freight agreement.
There is an agreement with YRCW, and tentative agreements going to members at ABF and UPS Freight. Separate agreements for some 40,000 freight Teamsters, and none could possibly be considered a model contract.
Hoffa came into office on the slogan "The Hoffa name means power." His father's big accomplishment was the NMFA. Now he's been busy at his PR events while his assistants have allowed the NMFA to be dismantled.
Does our union have a future in trucking? We believe the answer is a definite yes. Those 40,000 Teamsters in freight, along with brothers and sisters in tankhaul, carhaul, private carriage and other trucking fields are the core to rebuilding Teamster power.
Teamster power is not about a famous name. It's about organizing in the distribution industry. That will take a leadership with the will and the plan to make it happen.
ABF Teamsters to Vote on Concessions
May 24, 2013: Ballots will be mailed to members in early June.
The union's brochure makes the case that concessions are needed for the health of the company. ABF management circulated an internal memo "for proactive, verbal use with Teamsters employees...if you vote no, the likelihood that YRC will consummate a deal grows higher." So threats are being used too.
Key changes in the proposed Tentative Agreement include:
- Immediate 7 percent wage reduction.
- 2 percent wage increases in the following three years; 2.5 percent in the last year of five-year contract.
- Loss of one week vacation across the board.
- A Memorandum of Agreement to allow subcontracting of road work ("Purchased Transportation") up 6 percent of total miles (if limit is enforceable).
- Health and welfare benefits maintained.
- Pension contributions only to the extent required to protect pension benefits (this means no increase in contributions to the Central States or Western Conference Funds for the next five years).
- Management may use audio, video, electronic tracking devices to fire employees for "stealing time," without corroboration and without a warning letter! (New section of Article 26).
- Cost of Living clause limited and with 5¢ maximum possible.
- Coffee breaks limited to 10 minutes (Addendum B).
- Working across classifications expanded (Addendum C; and supplements). Drop and hooks, etc.
- Supervisors can handle dock pick-ups if no dock worker is on duty (Article 3).
- Profit sharing bonus if operating ratio gets to 96 percent or better.
- Local grievance panels eliminated.
There are additional changes in the supplements.
Read the agreement. Discuss it with your fellow Teamsters. Cast your vote.
"The 7 percent wage cut reduces us to less than what a nonunion carrier is paying. They say we catch up over the life of the contract but that just gets us back to where we stand now. With the cost of living rising over the next five years, we gain nothing.
"And what about losing our work to subcontracting? That lost work will take a bite out of paychecks. And we lose a week's vacation and they're not paying any increase on the pension. I vote Hell No on this contract."
Emmet Ramsay, ABF Road Driver, Local 391, Winston-Salem, N.C.
"Every ABF Teamster needs to read the new language on audio, video and computer tracking in Article 26, Section 3. The company can use this info to discipline, including terminate, without corroborating observation. We all experience how faulty the technology can be on a daily basis. Now we're going to have to defend ourselves based on shoddy data. Why is the company asking for sacrifices and then wanting to beat us over the head with an unreliable Big Brother?"
Paul Host, ABF Local Cartage, Local 200, Milwaukee
YRC Pays Hoffa Board Appointee $250,000 Monthly Fee
May 24, 2013: YRCW board member Harry Wilson is getting paid $250,000 per month, since February 2013, and may get a lot more. Wilson was appointed to the YRCW Board by the Teamsters Union leadership.
We've all heard the expression "follow the money."
This information is tucked away in a February YRCW filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing states that, "On Feb. 20, 2013, we entered into an Advisory Agreement with MAEVA Group, LLC ("MAEVA"), a company owned and controlled by Harry Wilson and of which Mr. Wilson is Chairman and CEO. Mr. Wilson is a Series A Director of the Company appointed by IBT."
The filing goes on to state that, "The Advisory Agreement calls for MAEVA to provide advisory, analytical, consulting and other services to us in connection with one or more potential transactions and/or other strategic initiatives that we may elect to pursue from time to time." As compensation for its services, MAEVA is entitled to receive $250,000 per month (starting Feb. 1) for at least the next four months plus potential completion fees not to exceed $5.5 million in the aggregate.
We have not been able to learn what "strategic initiatives" Mr. Wilson is working on for this fee, but we note that YRCW's big "strategic initiative" in this period seems to be the clumsy bid to buy ABF for $461 million.
Since Wilson was appointed to the Board by the Hoffa administration, surely Hoffa can explain what this lucrative consulting is all about, and if it has any possible relationship to the plan for a company, which cannot live up to the Teamster contract, to go on a buying spree.
Make YRC Pay Their Fair Share
By Tim Pagel, Local 988, Houston, YRC City Driver
When the YRC, Zollars and Hoffa bank heist is finally completed in 2015, I will be out an estimated $57K in wages alone. Then there's the stolen breaks, cheated pension deal, and the lost vacations weeks. I'm looking at a lot more lost than just the 15 percent wage cut made by me and thousands of other Teamsters.
I gladly pay my dues and support my union. I always have, because I wanted my family to have a decent and rewarding life in return for the backbreaking work we do. My goal was not to make life better and richer for inept CEOs, banksters and our so-called union leaders.
Now YRC claims to have the money to go on a shopping spree and Hoffa, as usual, said he didn't have a clue. Well there's no surprise there. It's time for our rank and file to say that's enough. Make them pay us back before any new acquisitions or mergers and that includes getting us paid up at the Central States Pension Fund.
Tentative ABF, Teamster contract calls for subcontracting of driver work, pension freeze
A tentative contract between less-than-truckload (LTL) provider ABF Freight System Inc. and the Teamsters Union, unanimously approved late yesterday by leaders of Teamster locals, would for the first time allow ABF to subcontract driver work, according to language in the agreement.
Under the proposal, ABF could subcontract out roadwork up to the equivalent of 6 percent of its total miles, according to a communiqué issued late last night by the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a Teamster dissident group.
The tentative compact also calls for an immediate 7-percent wage reduction, which would be recouped in increments over the life of the contract. The agreement freezes ABF's pension contributions to funds that represent workers in the central and western United States. It affords the company flexibility on work rules by expanding functions that could be handled across job classifications. It also eliminates one week of workers' vacation.
In return, all current union health and welfare benefits will be maintained. In addition, workers would get an undefined profit-sharing bonus if ABF's operating ratio—the ratio of expenses to revenues—hits 96 or better. ABF's first quarter revenues totaled more than $407 million while its expenses were nearly $429 million. This means its operating ratio was over 100 for the quarter.
The tentative contract now goes to ABF's 7,500 unionized rank-and-file workers for a final vote. Ballots will be mailed by June 3, with the tally set for June 27.
Teamster officials said they held the line on health and welfare benefit concessions, which were the members' top priority. The union had harsh words for ABF's purported negotiating tactics, saying management sought to force a contract on the workers that would "allow it to operate as a nonunion company." The union said ABF made numerous demands during the talks that were "unreasonable" and "anti-worker."
ABF, the largest unit of Fort Smith, Ark.-based Arkansas Best Corp., said it needed labor savings to operate more competitively with rivals, most of whom are nonunion, and with unionized carrier YRC Worldwide Inc., itself the beneficiary of significant wage and benefit concessions agreed to by its members four years ago.
Arkansas Best has lost a combined $265 million in the past four years, much of which the company blames on its labor costs, which are the highest in the LTL industry. Arkansas Best has said ABF's workers will remain the highest paid in LTL.
David G. Ross, transportation analyst at Baltimore-based firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., said in a research note today that the rank-and-file will likely approve the contract. "Parts of the deal will likely disagree with some of the members, but at the end of the day, it'll be difficult for them to find a better alternative in the marketplace, even with the concessions in place," Ross wrote.
Ross said the rest of the LTL industry should not be affected one way or the other by the new contract, noting that ABF isn't trying to undercut the market but instead is seeking to move closer to industry-average profit margins. "If anything, these changes should help ABF to remain rational on pricing," he wrote.
Today's action by the Teamster locals comes as Arkansas Best told employees that failure to ratify the agreement could pave the way for a purchase by rival YRC Worldwide Inc. and could spell a "very uncertain" future for the company and its workers. CEOs of YRC and Arkansas Best met in late March to discuss an informal offer by YRC to buy Arkansas Best. Arkansas Best rebuffed the offer in early April, and the companies have not talked since then.
In an internal memo, the date of which is unknown, Arkansas Best said YRC's buyout overtures were "serious and not some sort of 'scare tactic'—we have no ability to control what YRC and its board of directors will or won't do in the future regarding our company."
In a message aimed at the union workers, the company said that "if you vote yes and ratify the agreement...then ABF can continue on with our own plan to improve profitability, take back market share, [and] grow and protect your jobs and retirement benefits."
By contrast, a contract rejection means the "likelihood that YRC would be able to consummate a deal grows higher," the memo said.
The memo said Arkansas Best is in a financially "weak position" to fend off YRC's advances. No company executive or group of executives holds enough outstanding shares to thwart a takeover bid, with the board and management combined owning only between 4.5 percent and 10 percent of the company's shares, according to the memo.
Kathy Fieweger, an ABF spokeswoman, said the document was designed to help managers respond to employees' questions and concerns about YRC's strategy, given that company's own financial difficulties over the past four to five years.
Separately, YRC said today that its YRC Freight long-haul unit has implemented a network restructuring calling for it to close breakbulk terminals in Cincinnati; St. Louis; and Memphis, Tenn., and consolidate a number of "end-of-line" terminals used as freight pickup and final delivery points.
The move would save YRC Freight about $30 million a year by improving linehaul density, eliminating unproductive "empty miles," and reducing freight "touches" that slow transit times, increase labor costs, and increase the risk of shipment damage, the company said.
The restructuring would lead to the loss of 760 dock, shop, office, and cartage jobs and an additional 452 over-the-road driver positions at the affected terminal locations. At the same time, 343 over-the-road driver jobs would be created, along with 639 cartage positions. All told, the restructuring is expected to result in a net loss of 230 jobs.
The plan was implemented over the weekend.
ABF Agreement and Supplements Now Available
May 20, 2013: The tentative agreement with ABF will go out to a vote on or about June 3, according to an IBT press release.
You can read the master contract, and the supplemental agreements (below) and review and discuss the issues.
Key changes in the proposed Tentative Agreement include:
- Immediate 7% wage reduction.
- 2% wage increases in the following three years; 2.5% in the last year of 5 year contract.
- Cost of Living clause limited and with 5¢ maximum possible.
- Loss of one week vacation across the board.
- A Memorandum of Agreement to allow subcontracting of road work ("Purchased Transportation") up to 6% of total miles.
- Health & welfare benefits maintained.
- Pension contributions only to the extent required to protect pension benefits (this means zero increases in contributions to the Central States or Western Conference Funds for the next five years). Thus the "up to $1.00" per year in benefits will very likely be 50c for most ABF Teamsters.
- Management may use audio, video, electronic tracking devices to fire employees for "stealing time," without corroboration (Article 26).
- Coffee breaks limited to 10 minutes (Addendum B).
- Working across classifications expanded (Addendum C; and supplements). Drop and hooks, etc.
- Supervisors can handle dock pick-ups if no dock worker is on duty (Article 3).
- Profit sharing bonus if operating ratio gets to 96% or better.
- Local grievance panels eliminated.
There are additional changes in the supplements.
The International Union's highlights brochure points out that health coverage and current pensions were protected, and states that the economic and job concessions are necessary to ensure the health of the company.
Read the agreement. Discuss it with your fellow Teamsters. Cast your vote.
Supplemental Agreements
Central
Eastern
Western
Southern