LTL carriers optimistic about early labor pact

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 1/1/1998

Representatives of unionized less-than-truckload carriers are optimistic that there will be no Teamsters strike in 1998. "We are confident that we will have an agreement in place well in advance of the [current contract's] March 31 expiration," says Timothy P. Lynch, president of the Motor Freight Carriers Association. That organization represents management of four national and two regional unionized LTL carriers. Its negotiating arm, TMI, will handle talks for the four national carriers--Consolidated Freightways, Yellow Freight System, ABF Freight System, and Roadway Express. Regional carriers will bargain separately after the national contract is settled.

Lynch says that both the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the unionized LTL carriers want the LTLs' economic momentum to continue. And neither side wants shippers switching to non-union carriers.

Both the Teamsters and LTL management realize that a "business-as-usual attitude will not work," says Lynch. When asked about specific contract issues, Lynch said he would not "negotiate this contract in the public arena." He did say that no one was approaching the negotiations with "rose-colored glasses."

Aside from contract negotiations, the carrier group plans to open discussions on issues that are of mutual interest to labor and management. These would include driver recruitment and retention, selective use of triple trailers, and tax issues, including drivers' meal deductions and any proposed national sales taxes. Lynch says he plans to begin work on these joint issues after a new Teamsters president has been elected.