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ABF | Are Concessions Funding ABF’s Exit from LTL Trucking?

vongrimmenstein said:
Want to bet? Take Hostess Bakers a few years back. They bankrupt the company forcing it to close which a year later was sold & reopened under a non-union company which it still is to this day. Oh yea, a Federal Judge approved 6 million dollars from the Union Pension Fund to pay the executives more money to help close the company AND they did not have to pay the pension funds. The laws & regulations are very much favored on the side of business, not the workers who keep it afloat.


Now we all know about people’s opinions, they are not worth the spit in a spittoon. But I still say that ABF Freight Lines Division will go under, & will successfully file for bankruptcy allowing all of their pension obligations to disappear. With the 7% giveback & the purchase of many other non union companies, ABF is free & clear of pension fund with drawl penalties. Over the next 10 years I think the cost of bankrupting the fright division versus the profits from the other purchased companies is something they & their stock portfolios can tolerate. Just saying. Von.
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Or maybe I am wrong. They don't bankrupt the Freight Division; they slowly bleed off the business leaving a very small shell of a company. From say 8,000 rank & file down to 7 or 8 hundred. Health & welfare payments on 800 versus 8000 are a whole lot less. Just guessing. Von.
 
vongrimmenstein said:
Or maybe I am wrong. They don't bankrupt the Freight Division; they slowly bleed off the business leaving a very small shell of a company. From say 8,000 rank & file down to 7 or 8 hundred. Health & welfare payments on 800 versus 8000 are a whole lot less. Just guessing. Von.
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As long as they are paying on some...it is legal.....BUT, keep in mind, once the CSPF cuys begin in 2016....the Miller-Kline Act allows employers to withdraw from the fund with LIMITED liability ten (10) years from the first (1st) cuts...
Notice they made sure it said "1st cuts". ...meaning more may come before that 10 years ..sad....KK
 
Everyone that voted to give back and those that didn't even vote knew what they were doing so out of fear they voted yes to save a job maybe.

They can never go back. If you were that frightened before then you will resort to the same mind frame in the end. The company and the union knows this because we didn't strike and we allowed the union leaders that allow this mess to get re elected .

The latter speaks volumes about the courage and intellegence of the rank and file.
The good thing here is that we know it wasn't the ABF Teamsters that voted them back in office by the number of votes they received.
Don't get me wrong we had our balless little pukes that back them too.

But they didn't just vote for our cuts they have to live with it also now and in retirement. Your watching them cry BROTHER ALWAYS!
 
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vongrimmenstein said:
Now we all know about people’s opinions, they are not worth the spit in a spittoon. But I still say that ABF Freight Lines Division will go under, & will successfully file for bankruptcy allowing all of their pension obligations to disappear. With the 7% giveback & the purchase of many other non union companies, ABF is free & clear of pension fund with drawl penalties. Over the next 10 years I think the cost of bankrupting the fright division versus the profits from the other purchased companies is something they & their stock portfolios can tolerate. Just saying. Von.
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Sorry for beating a dead horse, but with all the pension concerns this has been on my mind a lot. What I am foreseeing as I consult my magic 8 ball is for ABC to spin off ABF as a stand alone company with all the debt and crumbling assets shortly before contract talks begin, way sooner than 10 years. Then Judy can say take it or leave it since many of the real money making parts of ABF have already been stripped out and given to our "non-asset" based affiliates. Then when the bankruptcy comes ABC will be insulated and can sail into the sunset without even a glance across the stern to see how many of us are drowning. Just my opinion, and as Von said probably not worth spit...
 
Why should a billion dollar company worry about it's employees? Why would they worry about customers,........or service?

The only reason this billion dollar company exists .......is to make a very few shareholders obscenely wealthy .......most of them in upper management.

It's merely incidental that we haul freight........we are primarily an investment tool.......We are no longer a family-owned organization.......... there's no sense of tradition.........no sense of responsibility towards either employee or customer.. ...... it's just pure raw greed......just like so many other companies........

In the name of "competitiveness"........we operate 850,000 mile rolling junkyards.......deal with PDA's that constantly malfunction........run everything on a ragged shoestring........cheat employees out of 5 years' worth of raises and vacations..........and, in the meantime.....stand back with folded arms and watch our pension plans blow up...........because the minute we are no longer......"competitive".........they will fire-sale us so fast our heads will spin......

I sound grumpy because we have 7 tractors and 10 guys,...........and 3 of the tractors have major shop time...........causing the two bottom guys to lose work...........Can't rent equipment anymore.......we wouldn't be ....."competitive".....,
 
canaryinthemine said:
Why should a billion dollar company worry about it's employees? Why would they worry about customers,........or service?

The only reason this billion dollar company exists .......is to make a very few shareholders obscenely wealthy .......most of them in upper management.

It's merely incidental that we haul freight........we are primarily an investment tool.......We are no longer a family-owned organization.......... there's no sense of tradition.........no sense of responsibility towards either employee or customer.. ...... it's just pure raw greed......just like so many other companies........

In the name of "competitiveness"........we operate 850,000 mile rolling junkyards.......deal with PDA's that constantly malfunction........run everything on a ragged shoestring........cheat employees out of 5 years' worth of raises and vacations..........and, in the meantime.....stand back with folded arms and watch our pension plans blow up...........because the minute we are no longer......"competitive".........they will fire-sale us so fast our heads will spin......

I sound grumpy because we have 7 tractors and 10 guys,...........and 3 of the tractors have major shop time...........causing the two bottom guys to lose work...........Can't rent equipment anymore.......we wouldn't be ....."competitive".....,
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850,000 miles??? Thats just broke in at Holland.
 
canaryinthemine said:
Why should a billion dollar company worry about it's employees? Why would they worry about customers,........or service?

The only reason this billion dollar company exists .......is to make a very few shareholders obscenely wealthy .......most of them in upper management.

It's merely incidental that we haul freight........we are primarily an investment tool.......We are no longer a family-owned organization.......... there's no sense of tradition.........no sense of responsibility towards either employee or customer.. ...... it's just pure raw greed......just like so many other companies........

In the name of "competitiveness"........we operate 850,000 mile rolling junkyards.......deal with PDA's that constantly malfunction........run everything on a ragged shoestring........cheat employees out of 5 years' worth of raises and vacations..........and, in the meantime.....stand back with folded arms and watch our pension plans blow up...........because the minute we are no longer......"competitive".........they will fire-sale us so fast our heads will spin......

I sound grumpy because we have 7 tractors and 10 guys,...........and 3 of the tractors have major shop time...........causing the two bottom guys to lose work...........Can't rent equipment anymore.......we wouldn't be ....."competitive".....,
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The 5 years of wages and concessions were actually negotiated to giveback as a relief for the rise in health, welfare, pension contribution rise. No other reason for this.. The other crap we gave them was economic relief. Rob us to pay the funds.. So we are paying for health care and our pension contributions rise, etc.
 
When the company stops buying new equipment is when I look for the freight division to close down. Most of the freight lines we have bought had old, poorly maintained equipment. The management was desperate to show a profit with no long term plans. At least one planned to close & milked all they could before selling.
 
Central Transport got all new tractors........Estes is running all new equipment.......FredEx has all those new KW's.............and our contract states that ABF is supposed to reinvest an amount equal to what they robbed out of our pay...... every year!

Our pay cut helped to finance ABF's entrance into logistics and 3pl's......where you can make money merely answering phones......

Oh,.......and don't forget the new corporate headquarters,........and Panther's, too. Those buildings don't come cheap

Just had a Panther guy show up at our dock......dirty unshaven guy in a dirty crumpled truck..........Is a torn T-shirt the required uniform for them?
 
canaryinthemine said:
and our contract states that ABF is supposed to reinvest an amount equal to what they robbed out of our pay...... every year!
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Don't expect the IBT to bother with that one, they know all about the grievance that was filed on shifting the Timekeeper revenues away from our till and they don't give a ::shit::. Contract, what contract? We don't have them either.
 
iam4us said:
I do agree abf wont be here in 3 to 4 years.
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yep, building up the assets to stiff the LTL freight division...bye bye obligations to the pension fund....
Hello Panther, Albert Moving & Storage, Logistics and others...sad..sad...sad
 
stickman said:
Unfortunately all we can do is try to vote out the do nothing mesters.and if abf folds try to follow the freight we're all here for the ride
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That's why I'm sticking around. I got one vote,......and if I could gift wrap it and send it to Fred Zuckerman,.......I would........along with a condolences/kiss my arse card to Team Hoffa........

Why he would allow the wreckage of his father's life's work is beyond me........

Maybe there's a lot of deep unresolved psychological angst there.........

Or maybe it's just lawyers selling out to the highest bidders........

Hard to say what it is........but the end result was that we were tricked into the rottenest contract in the history of organized Labor.........at the beginning of the largest driver shortage ever seen.........

We had 'em by the throat for the first time ever.........and our "negotiating" team worked night'n'day.......to convince us we HAD to ratify this putrid, steaming heap of legalistic offal......

Thanks,, guys.......... where's the damned gift wrap?
 
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