If you count last contract and this contract abf is paying around $2,50 raise in ten years really sad.
Which can't even be called a raise... after all... they are just transferring the pension increases to wages. The fact in the matter is that they are just trading one concession for another.
And just saying that it's around a $2.50 raise in 10 years is misleading in itself because it's not even mentioning the fact of what all was given back by the Teamsters in those 5 years... along with how the company was using those concessions.
We must all remember...
The average employee gave back $1,368 from Nov 2013 to April 2014 without overtime. Gave back $2,621 from April 2014 to April 2015. Gave back $1,664 from April 2015 to April 2016. Gave back $478 from April 2016 to April 2017. That's $6,131 that the average ABF employee gave back without overtime in wages for the last four years. Times that by 7500 ABF employees and you get $45,982,500 that the employees gave back in the last 4 years.
Now let's move on to the vacations. The average employee will lose $5,497 for giving back those 5 weeks vacations lost during the contact years. That's $41,227,500 more given back by the employees. That makes $87,210,000 that the ABF employees will have given back during the contract just in wages and vacations.
Just that in itself pays for the $25,000,000 spent for Logistics & Distribution Services in 2016... the $26,000,000 spent for Bear Transportation in 2015... the $5,170,000 spent for Smart Lines in 2015 and the $30,000,000 being spent on the new headquarters. Those all add up to $86,170,000 and when you subtract that from the $87,210,000 that the employees gave back just in wages and vacations... ArcBest still comes out $1,040,000 ahead. And we're still not done by even a long shot... just one instance more without even getting into all the savings the company made by the changes made with the local rule changes and purchased transportation... and that would be...
The amount of money that ArcBest should of been paying out if it wouldn't of been spewing out all the lies and deceit just to get this concessionary contract passed so the employees would end up having to foot the bill for all these companies they were planning to purchase and the new headquaters. For argument's sake... let's use the modest pay raise scale we got in the 2008 contract which is $.50...$.40...$.45...$.40...$.45 respectively. That would of been $1,040 per average employee without overtime that should of been made in 2013...$832 in 2014...$936 in 2015...$832 in 2016 and $936 in 2017. That's a total of $4,576 extra per average employee without overtime for the life of the contract. Again... times that by 7500 employees and you get another $34,320,000 that the company saved by all the lies and deception. Add that to the $1,040,000 that ArcBest had left after buying Logistics & Distribution Services... Bear Transportation... Smart Lines and the new headquarters and you get another $35,360,000 to play with after all those purchases. Let me also add... the current hourly wage should be $26.63.
So... just what does ArcBest think about how they are going to spend all this extra money made over and above the costs of those 3 companies and the new headquarters? I'll tell you what I think Judy and company thought... and that is... let's go on a shopping spree since we never even dreamed those damn gullible fool ABF freight employees would just give us everything we wanted. And Judy say's... let's get my new daughter... Panther a new headquarters too. After all... my step daughter... ABF Freight is getting Arcbest's hand-me-down headquarters so it only seems right that her 'real' daughter get a new one. So ArcBest spends another $13,000,000 for a new headquarters for Panther in 2015. But that still leaves $22,360,000 so let's say that the ABF Freight employees are also paying the $600,000 annual tab to run the medical clinic that ArcBest opened up in 2014 so let's tack on another $2,400,000 of the employee's money which still leaves $19,960,000 to divide up as bonuses amongst ArcBest's corporate officers.
So... the way I look at it... the ABf freight employees are paying the tab to run ArcBest's medical clinic... bought Logistics & Distribution Services... Bear Transportation... Smart Lines... ArcBest's new headquarters... Panther's new headquarters and handing out hefty bonuses to those who set out to intentionally screw them. That's what keeps the 'no' voter up at night and the 'yes' voter should be ashamed of and wanting to rectify come 2018!!!
And let's not forget Robert Young's idea of an acquisition...
1995 - ABF Freight buys Worldway Corporation - $72.2 million plus $70 million in Carolina debt for a total of $142.2 Million- approximately $800 million in annual revenue.
That's one purchase for $142.2 Million and approximately $800 million in annual revenue. Included in that purchase are... Carolina Freight... G. I. Trucking Co... Red Arrow Freight Lines... Cardinal Freight Carriers... Innovative Logistics Inc... CaroTrans International Inc and FleetNet America and many tangible assets... too numerous to mention. That one purchase almost doubled ABF Freight's annual revenue seeing that ABF posted revenue of $1.1 billion in 1994 while Carolina Freight had revenue of $935 million.
1997 - ABF Freight introduces ABF UPack
And what's Judy McReynold's... a tax accountant by training... idea of acquisitions? She began accelerating ArcBest’s move away from its traditional... unionized LTL operation into a new... more diversified approach to transportation. And why... well I think that Alpine Analytics of Seeking Alpha said it best on what all is rolling around in Judy's mind in 2012...
Burdened with the legacy costs of highly-unionized freight, ABFS has been diversifying into non-asset or asset-lite businesses with lower cost structures and better growth prospects.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/882...mpany-for-free
So Judy gets the shovels digging by applying her more diversified approach to transportation by buying...
2011 - Albert Moving for $4 Million
2012 - Buys ABF Freight a sister... Panther Expedited Services - $180 Million - approximately $215 million in annual revenue
2013 - Creates ABF Freight a sister... ABF Logistics
2014 - Changes Arkansas Best Corporation to ArcBest Corporation
Then ABF Logistics buys...
2015 - Smart Lines - $5.17 Million - approximately $18 million in annual revenue
2015 - Bear Transportation - $26 Million - approximately $120 million in annual revenue
2016 - Logistics & Distribution Services - $25 Million - approximately $60 million in annual revenue
2017 - Implements New Corporate Structure
So this is how I see it...
She buys 5 Companies for a total of $240.17 Million and adding approximately $413 Million in annual revenue with no tangible assets to mention.
She sure missed her goal to push beyond $3 billion in annual revenue in 2015 and as a matter of fact didn't even quite get there in 2016 seeing that ArcBest had a total revenue of $2.7 Billion to which ABF Freight had $1.92 billion and the non assets had $803.4 Million. To her credit... she did manage to up the non assets to $803.4 Million in annual revenue... but... and there will always be a but when Judy's involved... taking TimeKeeper and ABF Upack away from ABF Freight probably had a lot to do with that.
Not one dime was spent on the expansion of ABF Freight since Judy took over and they managed to have an operating income of $33.6 million for 2016. But as we all know too well... many things were taken away from ABF Freight and the employees themselves!
On the other hand... $240.17 Million was spent on 5 non assets... $55 Million on new headquarters for ArcBest and Panther... and no clue as to the other expenses involved implementing the New Corporate Structure amongst other things in the process of building up her non assets since she took over. Yet... she only managed to squeeze an operating income of only a mere $9.3 Million in 2016.
Now... compare that to what all Robert Young has accomplished... including investing only $142.2 Million and almost doubling ABF Freight's annual revenue!!! IMO... that's the difference in being experienced and freight oriented vs just an overly ambitious bookkeeper.
But there are some things that Judy did manage to accomplish that Robert never could which Muler so eloquently pointed out so there's no need for me to explain because I couldn't of said it better no matter how hard I tried!!!
And I sure hope people take heed and seriously think about Muler's closing line... 'don't be blinded by the little things... focus on the real problems because the choice you make this contract will decide if you have a job in the near future or not'.