April 24, 2013: The IBT approved the YRC system-wide change of operations with some slight modifications following the hearing in Dallas on April 19. See the attached proposal and final decision.

The company’s method of bidding incorporates both follow the work and pool bidding. Some locals proposed changes in the bidding, but they were shot down. The telephone bid will be conducted on May 11, 2013 with implementation no sooner than May 19. The company will post the follow the work bids on April 22, 2013. Pool bids will be posted on May 2, 2013 and proxies returned no later than May 7.

FORT SMITH - ABF Freight System Inc. is proposing a one year, 6.5 percent cut in wages for its Teamsters union drivers and other workers, as well as reduced health care and other benefits, according to a website posting by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

After four months of contract negotiations, the Teamsters and ABF Freight System Inc. of Fort Smith are at last talking wages and pensions, according to postings Monday and Friday by both sides.

The union uses words such as "frustrating" and "disappointed" in a website posting that describes ABF's initial economic proposals last week.

The trucking company, which employs about 7,500 Teamster members, posted an update Monday to correct what it calls misperceptions circulating about its pension proposals.

The company and the union on Friday announced another 30-day contract extension through the end of May to continue to bargain. Their contract was to have expired March 31 and has already been extended once by 30 days. The two sides also are locked in a court battle, with ABF complaining in its 2010 lawsuit that the Teamsters and YRC Worldwide enacted concessions for the Kansas company that violated a 2008 national labor contract designed to apply equally to YRC and ABF.

Here are what both sides say are the latest issues in contract negotiations between the union and ABF:

According to the Teamsters, the company's proposals in addition to the across-the-board 6.5 percent wage reduction include:

Eliminating paid health-care coverage for employees working less than 130 hours per month.

Requiring a $240-per-month employee contribution from workers for family health-care coverage.

Reducing and capping the company's contributions to many pension funds.

In an e-mail Monday, ABF company spokesman Kathy Fieweger said the company’s proposals include these provisions:

In addition to a 6.5 percent hourly pay cut, ABF has proposed pay increases in succeeding years that would have the hourly rate higher at the end of the five-year proposed contract than it is now.

The 130-hour threshold to receive paid health-care benefits would standardize minimum hourly, daily or monthly thresholds already in existence for workers to qualify for paid health-care premiums. This hourly figure includes overtime and paid time off, so essentially employees must work 30 hours per week to qualify for paid health care.

The $240 monthly contribution for family coverage is part of a plan that would "modestly increase" out-of-pocket employee costs. It still would be a better plan than the current one for nonunion ABF employees, including management.

The company plans to continue sufficient contributions to all current pension funds, which now number 25. The company does not plan to withdraw from any current pension plans.

Since before contract talks began in December, ABF has said it has to have concessions for the company to survive. In a Friday posting, company officials echoed that point: "We must ensure ABF's long-term viability with a contract that reflects how the rest of the industry operates. We can't continue with the contract that produced $250 million in losses since 2009."

ABF says its proposed package will "still provide its Teamsters with the best-paying jobs in the industry and protect their retirements," according to the company spokesman.

The Teamsters' post voiced worries.

"While we've made progress on major local and over-the-road work rule issues over the last few months, the company's new proposals [last] week are very disappointing and place our process at risk," according to Gordon Sweeton, Teamsters ABF National Negotiating Committee co-chairman. A Teamsters spokesman could not be reached Monday afternoon.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a group within the union that posts updates on bargaining issues, says its members were unhappy the company has proposed cuts to wages, health care and pensions. "It's the combination of the three that is really big," said Ken Paff, national organizer for the Detroit-based group.

At the same time, both the union and the company are motivated to produce a new negotiated contract, Paff said. "Neither side wants to think about a strike. It could be devastating," he said.

ABF is the largest subsidiary of Arkansas Best Corp. of Fort Smith, which is ranked as the U.S. and Canada’s 13th largest trucking company. ABF specializes in less-than-load shipments that combine two or more shippers' goods into the same truck.

In 2010, ABF and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters leadership agreed to a 15 percent reduction in gross wages and mileage rates for ABF union workers. Union members voted it down.

Contract talks between ABF and the Teamsters are scheduled to resume April 29 in Kansas City.

Arkansas Best stock closed Monday at $10.96, up 6 cents or 0.55 percent on the Nasdaq. The company's stock has traded in the last year between $6.43 and $18.18.

Updated April 22, 2013: The IBT and ABF have agreed to extend bargaining another 30 days, as ABF continues to demand big cuts in health care, pensions and wages.  The extension now runs until the end of May.

According to an IBT Bulletin issued late yesterday, ABF is demanding that Teamsters pay $240 per month for family health coverage, with reduced benefits; big cuts in pension contributions, which would have the effect of removing ABF from big pension plans, including Central States and Western Conference; and a 6.5% wage cut.

The company has issued its own bulletin defending the big concession demands. They issued a later statement claiming members pensions would not be endangered by their proposal.

The effect of the concessions would be that most ABF Teamsters would pay nearly $3,000 a year for reduced health coverage; would take a pay cut of about $1.60 per hour, which would cut over $4,000 per year for most Teamsters; and could have their pensions endangered.

ABF Teamsters: stay informed, stay united.

Join TDU's Freight network: No Freight Concessions. Click here to send us a message and click here to sign up for email updates.

UPDATED April 18, 2013: YRCW and the union for 200 mechanics at 15 Holland and YRC terminals have reached a tentative agreement, and the threat of a lock-out is over, at least for now.

Members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) will be voting on the contract.

The Hoffa administration has taken the company's side, noting that the union mechanics are not going along with the "equality of sacrifice" envisioned in the Teamster memorandum of understanding.

But many rank-and-file Teamsters made clear that they had no intention of crossing picket lines. This bottom-up solidarity undercut management's strategy of isolating the mechanics.

YRCW CEO James Welch had minimized the dispute, telling the media the mechanics are "less than 0.1%" of YRCW's workforce. (His math is lousy: they are about ten times that, or 1%.) But with some Teamsters set to honor lines, Welch backed off his statement to the media of "we will lock them out" and continued to bargain.

Hopefully the tentative agreement is satisfactory, and the issue will be resolved.

See below for a comment from Sam Cicinelli, Business Representative for IAM Mechanics Union Local 701, thanking Teamster members for their solidarity.

UPDATED April 16, 2013 2:00 p.m. EDT: YRC has given another extension on its deadline to lock-out 200 union mechanics at 15 terminals. Bargaining is scheduled to continue today.

Meanwhile, the Hoffa administration has taken the company’s side, but some Teamster members are choosing solidarity instead of sorry-assity. This Teamster rank and file solidarity may be what is bringing management back to the table.

The mechanics, who are members of the International Association of Mechanics (IAM) have accepted some concessions and are bargaining over others, but have refused to take concessions equivalent to those accepted by the Teamsters Union nationally.

In a conference call on April 15 for all freight Local Unions, IBT Freight Director Tyson Johnson sided with the company, noting that the union mechanics are not going along with the “equality of sacrifice” envisioned in the Teamster memorandum of agreement.  Eastern Freight Director Ernie Soehl, always eager to please, chimed in with the same message.

But some rank and file YRC Teamsters do believe in solidarity. A number have told us that they have never crossed a picket line and don’t plan to start.

Some YRC members have suggested that at the least the International Union could call on YRC to not use the anti-union tactic of a lock-out, but continue to bargain with the mechanics’ union. Also, the Hoffa administration could offer to join the talks to help facilitate an agreement.

We encourage YRC management drop the threat of a lock-out and hammer out an agreement.

YRC Worldwide is facing off against a union representing a small group of employees, demanding those workers take the same wage and benefit cuts already accepted by thousands of Teamsters and nonunion co-workers.

The $4.9 billion less-than-truckload operator said it will end a contract extension April 15 that covers about 200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The contract expired March 31, and talks are deadlocked over the wage and benefit concessions.

“We will actually lock them out,” said James Welch, CEO of the holding company. “We’re hoping that will help force some more serious negotiations.”

A lockout of the IAM workers would have no impact on customer service, and would close no terminals or facilities in the YRC Freight or Holland networks, Welch said. “We’re very confident we won’t have any business interruptions,” he said.

YRC Worldwide is the largest unionized trucking employer, but the vast majority of its union employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “The IAM represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent” of the company's 32,000 employees, Welch said. 

The IAM members are concentrated at about 10 terminals in Chicago, St. Louis and a few other areas, Welch said. “It’s real easy for us to reroute trucks (for maintenance); we have garages across our service network,” he said.

Starting in 2009, the Teamsters employees agreed to three rounds of wage and benefit reductions that took wages down 15 percent and temporarily suspended pension contributions. Reduced pension contributions resumed in 2012. The company's current contract with the Teamsters expires in 2015.

The IAM employees “did not take the wage and pension adjustments everyone else took,” Welch said. “They refused to go along with the shared sacrifice our union and nonunion employees took. We feel we need to get everyone on the same page.” Representatives of the IAM were not immediately available for comment.

“It’s hard to have two employees working side by side when one has agreed to concessions and one has not," Welch said. "These machinists are at a small number of facilities. We’ve made it clear we’re serious about reducing the cost and shared sacrifice.”

April 10, 2013: A hearing was held in federal court in St. Louis today in the case ABF filed against the IBT and YRC, in an effort to win concessions that the company could not get passed by the rank and file.

If you care to listen to the brief hearing and attorneys’ arguments click here.

Then click on Court Session, then select April 2013 and click on case number 12-3090.

Labor attorneys consulted by Teamsters for a Democratic Union give ABF little chance in the case. Additionally, the IBT may put dismissing the case on the table as a condition to sign a contract with ABF this month.

A trucker who refused to drive a truck he believed was unsafe is getting his job back in addition to lost pay, while another has been order to pay money back and has been sentenced to jail in a workers' compensation fraud case.

A U.S. Labor Department administrative law judge has ordered Boise, Idado-based Cargo Express to reinstate Thomas J. Graff after he was fired and awarded him back pay and punitive damages, along with attorney’s fees totaling more than $90,000.

Judge Lee J. Romero Jr. determined the company violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 when it fired Graff because he refused to drive a truck because of an oil leak and an air leak, despite the company saying his termination was due to Graff failing to meet a monthly standard for miles driven. The carrier was also ordered to remove any negative references about Graff from his DAC report.

Graff was represented by Paul O. Taylor, an attorney with Truckers Justice Center in Burnsville, Minn.

Cargo Express has until mid-April to file an appeal.

Meantime, in Ohio a trucker has been ordered to pay more than $60,000 to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for working as a truck driver while collecting money for an earlier workplace injury.

BWC says its Intelligence Unit received a cross match report from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that indicated Davis underwent a commercial vehicle inspection during the time period he was receiving temporary total disability benefits. An investigation revealed he knowingly worked as a commercial truck driver while concurrently collecting disability benefits.

Davis earlier pleaded guilty to workers' compensation fraud, a felony. He was also sentenced to 12 months in prison and five years of probation. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $57,533.14, plus investigative costs of $3,201.08.

Representatives of the Teamsters Union are set to meet on April 19with officials from YRC Freight to discuss changes to the less-than-truckload carrier’s terminal network.

YRC is looking to reduce the number of its terminals from nearly 300 to just over 265 along with closing three distribution centers in Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Memphis. It’s estimated some 1,200 union workers could be affected along with around 230 jobs being eliminated. YRC has reportedly been hoping to make the changes in May.

According to the dissident group Teamsters for a Democratic Union, many terminals will lose a small number of road drivers while management's proposal calls for a loss of 760 dock, cartage, shop, and office jobs, and a loss of 452 road jobs at the closing terminals. The gains would be 639 in cartage and 343 for road, for a net loss of 230 jobs.

So called end-of-line terminals slated for closures are: Youngstown, Ohio; Mansfield, Ohio; Wausau Wisc.; Coldwater, Mich.; Libertyville, Ill.; St. Cloud, Minn.; Crystal Lake, Ill.; Great Bend, Kan.; Lafayette, Ind.; Salem, Ill.; Bridgeport, Neb.; Grand Forks, N.D.; Carlstadt, N.J.; Elizabeth, N.J.; Wytheville, Va.; Springfield, Ma.; Littleton, N.H.; Lawrenceville, Ga., Daytona Beach, Fla.; Hattiesburg, Miss., Pensacola, Fla.; Victoria, Tex.; Fort Smith; Ark.; Greenville, Miss.; Bozeman, Mont.; Kalispell, Mont.; Benicia, Calif.; San Jose, Calif. and Bell., Calif.

The move comes as parent company YRC Worldwide has spent several years drowning in red ink, though it’s most recent numbers have showed smaller losses while YRC Freight last year reported its first operating profit if four years during 2012.

A meeting between the company and the union is required as part of the labor contract between the two sides, including to get feedback from the Teamsters. However, the union doesn’t have much control, because the company's contract allows YRC to make changes in operations without a vote by union members.