ABF Teamsters Approve Five of Seven Supplemental Labor Agreements

ABF Freight System’s Teamsters employees approved five of seven remaining labor supplemental agreements to a pending five-year labor contract, the company and union said in separate statements.

The seven supplements initially were voted down, but five were approved in subsequent votes this month, the Teamsters said in a statement on its website.

A five-year labor agreement was approved by a majority of ABF’s approximately 7,500 Teamster employees in June.

Less-than-truckload carrier ABF’s parent company, Arkansas Best Corp., and the Teamsters agreed at the beginning of the month to extend their existing contract through the end of August.

Arkansas Best said terms of the ABF National Master Freight Agreement — including planned increases to health, welfare and pension benefits — will not be implemented until the final supplements are resolved.

“ABF and the Teamsters will meet to address these remaining supplemental agreements in the near term,” the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday.

The five supplements approved were Central Region Over-the-Road Freight, Southern Region Area Local Freight Forwarding Garage, Joint Council 40, Carolina Freight Council Over-the-Road and New Jersey-New York Area LU-701.

The two that were rejected were the Central Region Local Cartage and the Western States Office Employees Part V, the Teamsters statement said.

Arkansas Best Corp. is ranked No. 12 on the Transport Topics Top 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.