Teamsters, Car Haulers Try Again
This story appears in the Jan. 30 print edition of Transport Topics.
Labor and management negotiators have produced a third contract to submit for ratification to Teamsters working in the car-haul sector of trucking, the union announced Jan. 23.
A major executive for an auto transporter confirmed that a proposal has been reached.
About 6,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been working under an extension of the labor pact that expired Aug. 31, 2015. Union workers defeated a proposed contract 55% to 45% in September after soundly rejecting the first proposal for a replacement in 2015.
“I hope it is viewed as a good deal by all sides,” Michael Riggs, CEO of Jack Cooper Holdings Corp., said in an e-mail statement.
Jack Cooper is one of the employers represented by the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division, a group based in Troy, Michigan. NATLD Executive Director James Osmer was unavailable for comment.
In addition to Jack Cooper, Cassens Transport and Active Truck Transport are the major members of NATLD.
The Teamsters website said its negotiating committee “has unanimously endorsed this new tentative settlement and believes it meets the goals of the car-haul members and provides for their long-term job security while protecting members’ ben-efits and standard of living.”
The next stage in the process will take place around Feb. 6, when leaders of union locals gather for briefings on the proposal. More information about the proposed contract will be released at that time, the union said.
“If the local union leaders endorse the tentative agreement, it goes to the members for their vote on whether to ratify it,” Teamsters Press Secretary Kara Deniz said.
The expired pact ran for four years and three months. It contained a national master agreement plus three regional supplements: Eastern, Western and Central/Southern, Deniz said.
Since its founding in 1903, the Teamsters has diversified, representing workers in 22 segments of the economy. The union’s nine logistics divisions are airlines, car haul, express, freight, package, ports, rail, tank haul and warehouse.
UPS Inc., North America’s largest trucking company, is the biggest single employer of Teamsters, the union said.
As with the less-than-truckload freight division, car haul is a mixed segment of trucking divided between unionized and nonunion carriers.
