ABF, Teamsters Extend Contract Through Aug. 31

ABF Freight System and the Teamsters have agreed to a contract extension through the end of August that will allow union members to vote on supplemental agreements to the ABF National Master Freight Agreement.

Ballots will be mailed to employees covered by those supplements at the beginning of this month and will be counted several weeks later, ABF said in a statement.

The Teamsters and ABF Freight reached agreement on a new master freight contract in late June, but said that several side agreements remained to be negotiated.

Increases in contributions to health, welfare and pension plans that were supposed to begin Aug. 1 for all Teamster employees will not take effect as scheduled until all remaining supplemental agreements are ratified, ABF said.

Less-than-truckload ABF Freight System is the largest business unit of Arkansas Best Corp., which is ranked No. 12 on the Transport Topics Top 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.