ABF Contract 2018
Lowlights…
No Catch-Up on Wages: There is no catch-up raise to make up for the $1....70 per hour concession we took in 2013. The wage increases are 30¢-35¢-40¢-45¢-50¢ in an agreement which is 63 months long – more than five years. Thirty cents is just 1.2 percent. That’s well below the rate of inflation.
Pension Freeze: The pension payments from ABF are frozen for 63 months. At the meeting for officials today, local leaders from Philadelphia, Upstate New York and New England spoke out against this giveback because it threatens their pension funds. We’re supposed to defending our pensions, not undermining them.
Subcontracting of road work continues. The 6% limit on Purchased Transportation is reduced to 5%, but this cap is no more enforceable than it was before. There is still a two-tier clause, where drivers hired after July 1, 2018, do not have their work protected. Our union should not be selling out the unborn.
This and That…
The vacation week given away in 2013 is restored to the 2008 language. This is a plus.
The deal includes a $1000 bonus, to try to buy Yes Vote. Even a raise of 5¢ is worth more than this over 63 months. Do they really think they can buy a Yes vote for less than a nickel?
This pension freeze means that the raises are essentially taken from pension payments the company is saving. Previously, contracts usually provide $1 per year to be divided between pension and health and welfare. With zero to pensions, and 39c-40c-42c-50c-50c to H&W, that’s a huge savings for the company, and more than the wage increases.
The union gave the company a separate ABF grievance panel, so all the management side people will be ABF personnel who can deadlock or defeat any grievance (See Article 7.) The procedure is already weak: this looks to be worse.
We need better than that! See More

The Democratic Party wants to destroy the middle class, not save it. Teamsters take almost $100 a mo...nth for my check and the only thing I get out of it is the contract that keeps me from being a right to work employee!! The past four years Donald Trump done more to bring the middle class back, and undo the destruction of the last two presidents!!
Trump 2020!! How in the world does the teamster support somebody that wants to get rid of cows because they’re destroying the earth! All the manufacturing was almost gone from the USA! See More

I am sitting here looking at an explanation of benefits from the Michigan Conference of Teamster's W...elfare Fund. Going on the third year in a row it seems that I am paying health insurance for someone who does not belong on my policy. I gave up long ago trying to get this person removed from my policy. Several phone calls to the fund have led nowhere. For whatever reason the Teamsters have decided that unless this person decides to sign paperwork relinquishing their so called "rights" to be covered by MY policy I have to keep covering them. Who in their right mind would voluntarily give up free health insurance? I wish somebody would place me as a rider on their insurance policy for free, then I could eliminate some of these outrageous copays I have. Of course unauthorized people get covered by my insurance even after I try and get them removed, but it seems the Teamsters can "lose" my marriage certificate every few years and deny my actual family members coverage at will. With misplaced priorities and mismanagement like this it's no wonder our pension fund is failing. Do you also give out random pension benefits to people who never contributed? If so sign me up, I can find another union to work for, drop unauthorized insurance users and collect a Teamster's pension (or whatever might be left of it) to boot. See More