The International Brotherhood of Teamsters last week reported progress in negotiations with ABF Freight to hammer out a new five-year, collective bargaining agreement for the carrier’s union-represented workers.
With rank-and-file members serving on the bargaining committee, the union and the carrier took steps toward “numerous supplemental agreements,” including for the Central Region, Central Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania, the Teamsters said.
“We had a lot of good discussions across the table on a wide variety of issues,” said Teamsters National Freight Director John Murphy. “The company knows our positions.”
An ABF spokesperson declined to comment on the negotiations, which kicked off last month.
The two parties will continue to negotiate Eastern Region supplements at Eastern Region Joint Area Grievance Committee hearings next week, the Teamsters said.
In advance of negotiations at its union-represented LTL carriers, including ABF, TForce Freight and Yellow Corp., the Teamsters promised to “fight like hell” for its members in contract bargaining this year and next year.
The ABF Eastern Region supplements and other contract measures could still cause friction in the talks. But ABF has so far managed to avoid fireworks like those the union set off over Yellow’s network overhaul proposal. In a heated letter exchange, the carrier denounced “egregious lies and baseless insults” by the union.
Ensuring union members are hauling the companies’ freight is among the concerns the Teamster have expressed across the various talks. The union demanded Yellow halt the use of purchased transportation, then called on TForce last week to stop “the diversion of freight outside the bargaining unit.”
A TForce spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Yellow employs 22,000 Teamsters members, and TForce and ABF together employ more than 15,000 union workers, according to the union.
