ABF Cites Union Contract Concerns
Arkansas Best Corp. may seek to amend its labor contract with the Teamsters union following the union’s tentative agreement to make contract changes to help reduce costs at less-than-truckload carrier YRC Worldwide, Bloomberg reported.
Arkansas Best, the parent company of LTL carrier ABF Freight system, needs to “consider the ramifications of having a competitor with lower costs,” Chief Operating Officer Wesley Kemp wrote in a Nov. 26 memo to employees, Bloomberg said.
YRC and ABF are among the largest for-hire carriers with unionized workforces, with their Teamsters employees working under a shared labor agreement, Bloomberg said.
YRC and the Teamsters said in the past week that they have come to a tentative agreement on contract modifications, with details to be determined that must be ratified by the union’s general membership.
Arkansas Best is ranked No. 15 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers, while YRC is No. 4.
