I just hope everyboby remembers what all ArcBest gained and the ABF Teamsters lost by accepting that 2013 contract and keep that in mind when reviewing the tentative agreement when it is revealed...
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!!!