I think he means this is the YRC Forum
Yellow | Are Concessions Funding ABF’s Exit from LTL Trucking?
- Thread starter Freightmaster1
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Thank you for clearing that up.
Happy for you , BUT the $2040. per month will prolly be cut again and plus when you die , the fund keeps all the money , as where a 401-K you can will it to your kids !! sorry you don't see the big picture , but have a Happy Holiday
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OK....respectfully...do you not know that since 1964 we have deferred parts of OUR raises to fund our health & Welfare and pension Funds?
We DO pay for it in an indirect way....if not, we would be making $40 per hour (My Estimate)....so now when the Feds, who put CSPF in trusteeship tell us we are mandated now to take cuts, we have to fight it, as THEY appointed people to PROTECT our fund....You think your $2,040 a month will be safe?....I thought my $3,200 was also, until it got cut 30%..And under the law, that can come back later and it can be cut again up to 60%.....wake up and fight this!.....KK
Under right-wing pressure schools stopped teaching Civics and the History of Labor in America. The above post is the result. Keeping the Working Class uniformed and self-deluded is paying off handsomely for the CEO class -- and destroying the American economy.
Looks like ABF leadership is in the process of loading the company up with debt preparing to force a concession onto the workers to pay the debt. Either that or the unionized part will be spun off to die on its own, like RPS (later to become FedEx) did with Roadway.
Freightmaster1
TB Legend
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Don't rule out this deal from 2 1/2 years ago either...
YRC confirms bid to buy Arkansas Best; source says YRC made a preliminary offer of $18 per share
YRC CEO seems determined to do a deal.
Less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier YRC Worldwide Inc. said today it had made a preliminary proposal to acquire Arkansas Best Corp., a deal that ostensibly would include its unionized LTL division, ABF Freight System Inc.; its nonunion expedited transportation business; its truck brokerage operations; and other units.
According to a source close to the situation, a preliminary offer of $18 per share was—and may still be—on the table for Arkansas Best.
The source said it was unclear if the proposal was an all-cash deal or a combination of cash and other financing instruments. In less than a week, Arkansas Best's stock has jumped from $10.33 a share in early May to closed at $16.71 per share today, up $1.36. At current share prices, the company's market capitalization stands at slightly more than $394 million.
As of March 31, YRC's liquidity—which includes cash, cash equivalents, and available funds under a $400 million asset-based loan—was $214.8 million, the company said when it released its first-quarter results earlier this week.
The recent surge in Arkansas Best stock coincided with a May 3 announcement that ABF and international leaders of the Teamsters union had agreed on a tentative five-year contract containing an undetermined level of wage and benefit concessions. ABF, which has the highest labor cost structure in the LTL industry, has stressed for months that it needs to bring its labor expenses in alignment with its rivals, many of whom are nonunion, in order to remain competitive.
YRC CEO James L. Welch implied in a statement today that he and YRC will not take no for an answer. „Our board and management believed then and believes now that the combination of Arkansas Best and YRC would be in the best interests of all employees, customers, and shareholders of both companies,” he said.
Fort Smith, Ark. -based Arkansas Best said last night that Welch met with CEO Judy McReynolds on March 22 at Arkansas Best's headquarters to discuss a possible combination. Arkansas Best said in its statement that YRC approached it in late March with an interest in exploring a possible deal only for ABF, which accounts for roughly 80 percent of Arkansas Best's revenue. However, Arkansas Best said it told YRC in early April that ABF had other issues on its plate and that „considering a transaction with YRC was not appropriate at that time.” The companies have not talked since then, according to the statement.
Today's statement from Overland Park, Kan. -based YRC took on a slightly different tenor, seeming to suggest that Arkansas Best was receptive to a transaction. According to the statement, McReynolds discussed the proposal with her company's board of directors, but Arkansas Best declined to enter into talks with YRC because the „timing was not right to consider such a transaction.”
Neither company would comment beyond their respective statements.
LABOR IN LIMELIGHT
Organized labor will play a critical role in determining the future of any YRC-Arkansas Best combination or if a deal has any future at all. Word of the CEO discussions and the possible acquisition by YRC leaked out as ABF and the Teamsters are trying to consummate a new five-year collective bargaining agreement. Labor and management are currently operating under the second of two one-month extensions to the existing five-year contract, which originally expired March 31. The current extension expires May 31.
According to the source, Teamster officials bargaining with ABF were unaware until recently of any high-level discussions over a possible transaction. By the time they were notified, contract talks were at an advanced stage, according to the source. Neither the 7,500-member ABF rank-and-file or officials of Teamster locals representing the workers knew of YRC's interest in their company before news of it appeared last night on DC Velocity's website. A spokesman at Teamsters headquarters in Washington declined comment.
Officials of the various Teamster locals are scheduled to meet the week of May 20 to review the contract proposal. Should the local leaders approve it, they will then need to sell it to a scrappy and independent group of rank-and-file workers. Three years ago, that they rejected a contract offer that called for significant concessions similar to what union workers at YRC granted the company to keep it afloat. The rejection came after Teamster leaders approved the deal.
There are several scenarios in play at this time. The rank-and-file could choose to accept the proposed contract. The two sides could continue talking and the existing contract could be extended again for an agreed-upon time period. Alternatively, operations could continue without a contract, although such a move would be dicey because the union could call a strike without notice on or after June 1.
In the current environment, however, there is another factor to consider: A rejection by the rank-and-file would likely send Arkansas Best's stock falling, which ironically would make it cheaper for a potential suitor to buy the company. It could also make Arkansas Best's board and management more willing to sell because they may see little hope of making a significant change in their labor cost structure.
Arkansas Best said it was „very pleased” with the May 3 agreement. It noted that ABF Teamsters would remain the best paid in the LTL sector. However, the source said the tentative contract didn't deliver the magnitude of concessions that management wanted.
In mid-2009, YRC's rank-and-file agreed to a series of extraordinary concessions calling for 15-percent wage cuts and an 18-month suspension of the company's pension contributions. YRC resumed contributions in 2011, but at levels 75 percent below what it was contributing prior to the 2009 deal. Full pension payments are set to resume in 2015.
The agreements sparked a lawsuit by ABF against the Teamsters and YRC alleging the deals were struck outside of the main collective-bargaining agreement governing the trucking industry, and they should be made null and void. Despite several setbacks, ABF has continued with its suit.
In return for the givebacks, the Teamsters were given the right in 2011 to name two directors to YRC's board. One is Douglas O. Carty, co-founder and chairman of Switzer-Carty Transportation Inc., a Canadian company specializing in school bus transportation services. The other is Harry J. Wilson, a former financier who today is chairman and CEO of Maeva Advisors LLC, a New York-area company that holds itself out as a non-traditional corporate restructuring concern.
http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20130509-yrc-confirms-bid-to-buy-arkansas-best/
vongrimmenstein
I stand for our flag, & kneel for the fallen
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You won't hear me argue. I agree with what you just said. But how do you propose to fight something like this when only 26% of 1.4 million rank & file bothered to vote in the last general election? ABF Monthly Freight meetings @ Local 135 have maybe 10 people show up out of a possible 100 members. With 10% showing up @ a local freight meeting, that sends a very powerful message to the IBT Officers of the local, the officers of the Executive Committee of the IBT, & the Company officers of ABF that we are happy with what we have. Complacent we are. Because if we are not complacent, then we would have a lot more than 10 people show up for a meeting.
vongrimmenstein
I stand for our flag, & kneel for the fallen
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Very powerful & accurate video. Worth the time to watch. von.
Get the big picture.
Shouldn't this be in the ABF Forum?
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It is already.....KK
D
Deleted member 5115
Guest
It's everywhere. These things affect all of us in the long run and we should all be concerned. It feels like our union is our own enemy anymore.
Then why have forums? Most of the stuff in the YRC forum anymore seems to be Union News. We need a Union Forum, apparently. You like it here, because there's more life in the YRC forum than normally is in the ABF forum, and half of the controversy is driven by you...
Then why double threads? Someone wanting to read about ABF can go to the ABF forum (where they have a cow if anyone not ABF visits).
KK and ABFer are computer savvy, on the ball. How about creating two 'sticky threads' at the top of the forum? One, Teamster News, for news like this. The other, FreightMasterOne Presents: TDU's Political Comments. Then, we have union news, and still have the YRC forum...
D
Deleted member 5115
Guest
jimmy, thanks for the morning laugh. You have no idea how funny it is to hear one non YRC user telling another that they don't belong here. Talk about hypocrisy. And don't forget about my stint at New Penn, which gives me the same 'rights' here that you have. And yes, there is much more here than there is in that mundane ABF forum right now but at the rate our 'union' is going we'll both be buried in the boneyard before long.
nice twist of my words.
I didn't say you don't belong here. I said non ABFer aren't welcome at your forum,
And that half the controversy on here is driven by your intolerance of posters who disagree with your views. I Do agree with those who believe only KK should moderate here, and not you- but that's just my opinion.
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That is not for you to decide.....why do you come to the YRC forum?......where do you work?....KK
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That is not for non YRC employees, or for Non-Union employees to decide on a YRC Teamsters Forum.....KK