Teamsters

UPS said yesterday that it has reached a tentative agreement with the Teamsters on two, new five-year contracts for UPS’s small package and freight business units.

UPS and the Teamsters union are “far apart” during their ongoing contract talks that began with optimism last year that an agreement could be reached before the current five-year deal expires July 31.

Following meetings last week in Kansas City between ABF representatives and the Teamsters national negotiating committee, the Teamsters said that some progress has been made in that ABF has withdrawn its initial proposal and agreed to work from the existing agreement, as well as reaching tentative agreements on what it called various non-controversial items.

A few days before Christmas, ABF Freight System and the Teamsters union began talks on a new contract to replace the one that expires March 31. The acrimonious talks could not have gotten off to a rougher start had Ebenezer Scrooge been at the negotiating table.

The Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee said it is prepared to exchange contract proposals with ABF on December 18 and bargain a solid contract for the 7,500 ABF Teamsters.

Major changes are coming to multi-employer pension plans as two of the largest Teamsters-covered plans have adopted a new “hybrid” pension model to repair the broken system of the past.

Using the “aim high” theory of labor negotiations, union locals representing 7,500 Teamsters at ABF Freight System have asked the seventh-largest LTL carrier for a two-year contract with healthy wage and benefit increases.

ABF Freight System, the nation’s sixth-largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier, and a subsidiary of Arkansas Best Corporation, said it plans to begin negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee, the negotiating unit of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on December 18.

The most important labor contract talks in freight transportation begin September 27 in Washington when UPS and the Teamsters union begin negotiations on a new contract.

This follows an early August decision by a U.S. District Court to dismiss ABF’s lawsuit against those parties.

UPS said late last week it has reached an agreement with the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund (NETTI) to restructure pension liabilities for more than 10,000 UPS employees.

Abandoning its longstanding commitment to a collective approach in bargaining with the Teamsters, financially ailing ABF Freight System has informed the union it is pulling out of the National Master Freight Agreement and will negotiate a separate contract.

The biggest labor contract in transportation comes up for renewal next year when 250,000 Teamsters at UPS negotiate a new deal with the world’s largest and most profitable transport company.

A U.S. District Court this week elected to dismiss a lawsuit by less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier ABF Freight System Inc. against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, YRC Inc. and other related entities.

The Teamsters said these contracts represent roughly 250,000 union members throughout the United States.