Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

Appeals court upholds lower court decision, dismissing ABF suit against YRC, Teamsters

ABF fails in third try to overturn separate compacts between its LTL rival and the union.

The third time wasn't the charm for ABF Freight System Inc. in its three-year legal battle to overturn separate collective bargaining agreements reached in 2009 and 2010 between the Teamsters Union and ABF's less-than-truckload (LTL) rival YRC Worldwide Inc.

On Aug. 30, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis affirmed a lower court decision dismissing ABF's complaint that separate agreements negotiated between YRC and the Teamsters were illegal because they fell outside the scope of the National Master Freight Agreement, the compact governing labor relations in the trucking business.


The appellate court's decision marks the third time ABF has failed in its effort to reverse the separate agreements. Federal District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright has twice before dismissed ABF's complaint.

In a statement after the appellate court ruling, Fort Smith, Ark.-based ABF said it was reviewing the decision and assessing its options. It said it was "disappointed" with the ruling. By contrast, Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC said it was pleased with the decision.

YRC had received three rounds of concessions from its unionized workers calling for significant wage and benefit cuts. The separate agreements were seen at the time as vital to keeping financially ailing YRC in business. However, ABF argued that it never received similar concessions and that the givebacks to YRC gave its rival a significant and unfair cost advantage. ABF has the highest cost structure in the LTL business. The Teamsters represent workers at both companies.

ABF had sought to return YRC's cost structure to the levels that existed prior to the separate agreements. It also sued YRC and the Teamsters for $750 million in damages.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE
In June, ABF's approximately 7,500 unionized workers ratified a five-year collective bargaining agreement. The tentative compact calls for an immediate 7-percent wage reduction, which would be recouped in increments over the life of the contract. For the first time, ABF can subcontract out over-the-road driving, at least up to the equivalent of 6 percent of its total miles. In return, all current union health, welfare, and pension benefits will be maintained. Workers would get a 1-percent bonus if ABF's operating ratio—the ratio of expenses to revenues—fell between 95.1 and 96. They would get a 2-percent bonus if the ratio fell between 93.1 and 95 and a 3-percent bonus if it dropped below 93.

ABF's national compact cannot be implemented until all regional supplements have been renegotiated and ratified by the affected members. All but two of the original 27 supplemental agreements have been approved. However, in late August members of the central region local cartage agreement—the largest ABF supplement with about 1,700 affected members—rejected their compact for a second time. Unionized office employees in the western region did the same. Under the Teamster constitution, after two rejections, the union's principal negotiators must return to the bargaining table to address the issues. If no new agreement is reached or members reject a proposal for a third time, a strike vote would be taken in the affected areas.

ABF and the union have agreed to another 30-day extension of the current agreement to Sept. 30 in order to give both sides time to hammer out an agreement. This marks the sixth one-month extension since the current contract expired March 31.

The Latest

More Stories

intermodal operations

Tennessee waltzes off with top prize at IANA case study competition

If you were in charge of attracting new drivers to the intermodal industry, would you choose an owner-operator or a company-driver business model? That was the question posed to students competing in the Intermodal Association of North America’s (IANA) 2024 Intermodal Case Study Competition.

A team from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, walked away with top honors at this year’s event. It was the school’s first time competing in the scholarship competition, which was held during IANA’s Intermodal Expo in September.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

A United States Postal Service van drives on a curving mountain road..
Parcel express market confronts a shifting landscape
Parcel express market confronts a shifting landscape

Parcel express market confronts a shifting landscape

Having survived the demand surge of the pandemic and its aftermath, the parcel express market is undergoing an evolution of unprecedented proportions as the nation’s largest express carriers struggle to address multiple challenges—from a growing cast of new competitors, to rationalizing their networks and reining in surging costs, to dealing with flattening e-commerce volumes and a stubborn weakness in U.S. manufacturing and industrial output that’s putting a damper on parcel growth.

Shippers have serious issues with the high cost of parcel service, exacerbated by a flurry of surcharges and changes implemented for this peak season, says Bart De Muynck, principal at strategic supply chain consulting firm Bart De Muynck LLC. “If you are doing high volumes in peak season, those increases mean tens of millions of dollars in extra parcel shipping costs,” he says.

Keep ReadingShow less
Cibao Meat Products logo

Deli-meat producer takes company communications into the digital age

Family-owned business Cibao Meat Products, a producer of Hispanic-style sausages and deli meats, has long prided itself on staying true to the traditions and values the company was founded on in 1969—like a commitment to high-quality ingredients and a family workplace atmosphere. Less of a source of pride, however, was its continuing reliance on the same, mostly manual, processes and data management techniques used at its inception.

With the company now selling its meats to retail giants such as BJ’s, Sam’s Club, and Costco as well as 500 supermarkets and restaurants across the U.S., Cibao president Heinz Vieluf Jr. knew that it was time to take the company into the digital age. “As a third-generation leader of a multigenerational company, I put an emphasis on bringing our business into the digital future and utilizing technologies that will help propel success,” he said in a statement.

Keep ReadingShow less
autonomous lift truck in warehouse

Going deep on self-driving vehicles

As autonomous systems take on a bigger role in logistics and industrial production applications, the race is on to make the equipment smarter, more efficient, and safer. To accelerate work in this area, the German lift truck and logistics technology vendor Kion Group is partnering with a local university to support expanded studies on artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems.

Through a grant of $1.1 million over a period of five years, Kion has funded an endowed professorship for Safe Autonomous Systems at TU Dortmund University. The program will be headed up by computer science professor Sebastian Peitz.

Keep ReadingShow less
Palmer's product on the line.

Photo courtesy of ET Browne

Streamlining supply lines

American skin-care company ET Browne—best known for its Palmer’s Cocoa Butter—has trimmed costs, boosted revenue, and increased profits thanks to a recent IT upgrade from its longtime technology partner Syspro, a global enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider that specializes in serving manufacturing and distribution businesses. ET Browne has run on Syspro software for 25 years and racked up some of its biggest year-over-year improvements following a 2023 upgrade to the latest version of Syspro ERP—an enhancement that allowed it to leverage the platform’s material requirements and planning (MRP) capabilities to build a just-in-time inventory system.

The net result? A smoother-running supply chain.

Keep ReadingShow less