Union, Vehicle Haulers Reach Tentative Deal on New Contract Covering 8,100 Truckers

This story appears in the June 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Teamsters union on June 1 announced a tentative contract agreement with vehicle hauling companies that employ an estimated 8,100 drivers, just hours after the previous contract expired.

The union announced the deal on its website. No additional details were disclosed, pending a June 13 meeting in Nashville, Tenn., where local union leaders will decide whether to recommend approval.

The announcement was made after talks that continued past the 11:59 p.m. expiration of the former three-year contract on May 31.

“This agreement addresses our members’ top priorities,” said Fred Zuckerman, co-chairman of the union’s negotiating committee, who earlier identified those goals as preservation of jobs and benefits. “We will release more information once the local union leaders have the opportunity to review it.”

The union’s spokesman, Galen Munroe, didn’t respond to requests for details from Transport Topics. Carrier negotiator Robert Long, a Columbus, Ohio, attorney, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The tentative deal was announced on a day when May new car and light truck sales showed signs of a softening market to about 11.8 million annually from a 13 million annual pace in the prior three months, Bloomberg News reported. However, the recent lower number was an improvement over the sale rates of less than 10 million annually that occurred during negotiations for the previous contract.

The National Automobile Transporters Labor Division represented carriers, including Jack Cooper Transport, Kansas City, Mo.; Cassens Transport, Edwardsville, Ill.; and Allied Systems Holdings, Atlanta, which are the three largest unionized carriers, as measured by TT.

On the union side, the Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee represented the drivers.

Last week’s announcement marked a sharp difference from the pace of the last round of negotiations, which did not produce a tentative agreement for several weeks after the May 31, 2008 contract expiration.

That 2008 route to ratification followed a complicated path.

The tentative agreement wasn’t reached until after the second-largest car hauler, Performance Transportation Services, closed in the aftermath of a strike and a decision by investors to stop funding the company.

Rank and file members rejected the first deal after the voting period was extended because not all members re-ceived ballots. A second tentative agreement was reached in September and ratified a month later.

That deal included a single wage increase of 20 cents an hour in the final year of the pact after two years without an increase from the average pay of about $20 an hour.

During the current talks, neither the carriers nor the union made any public comment other than brief notices posted on the union’s website.

On May 31, the union said talks were continuing as the deadline approached and that the union refused to grant an extension of the contract requested by the carriers.

“Instead, the union has insisted that the employers must bargain an acceptable agreement prior to the expiration,” that statement on the union’s website said. “The union’s committee will continue to meet until a tentative agreement is reached.”

Unlike the prior round that included multiple events linked to the talks, the recent changes in the car haul industry resulted from market actions.

In March, General Motors and Chrysler canceled their contracts with Allied after a rate dispute, creating new business for Jack Cooper and Cassens.

Based on comments by Jack Cooper officials that projected a 50% revenue growth over the 2010 total of about $250 million, that company will take over as the largest carrier in the sector.