Proposed Deal Hikes Teamsters’ Pay, Retains Benefits

The Teamsters union reaches a tentative labor agreement covering more than 6,000 drivers and maintenance workers employed by trucking companies that move finished vehicles from assembly plants, deep-water ports and rail yards to new-car dealers across the country.

The 5-year agreement awaiting ratification by union members includes annual pay increases of 1.2% to 1.4% for drivers and yard workers. Drivers currently make between $48,000 and $52,000 per year not including overtime.

The tentative contract, which replaces an agreement that expired in September 2015, maintains the traditional health and pension benefits of Teamsters working in the car-haul industry as well as new protections against trucking companies moving work to nonunion subsidiaries, which the union has fought for the past 15 years.

The deal also includes a $1,000 retroactive payment, payable upon member ratification.

“In my opinion this is the best money we’re able to get,” Kevin Moore, director of the Teamsters’ Carhaul Div., says during a briefing on the proposed contract.

Moore notes competition from nonunion carriers has intensified since the 2008-2009 recession. But the enhancements to the new contract open the door to recruiting drivers from companies that now are nonunion.

Railroads also are taking an increasing share of the carhaul business.

Despite the erosion of union influence in the carhaul sector, the unionized carriers work with U.S. automakers in the Midwest and with foreign manufacturers on the East and West coasts and in the Southeast, making them a vital link in the chain that delivers finished vehicles to showrooms.

The tentative agreement with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Div., which represents carriers such as Jack Cooper Transport and Cassens Transport, strikes a balance between the demands of union members and the carriers, who are under continuous pressure from automakers to hold down costs.

Teamsters officials say ratification ballots will be mailed to members on or about Aug. 22 and tentatively will be tallied Sept. 15. This schedule will allow local unions enough time to conduct informational meetings. Teamsters also will be asked to vote for strike authorization should the proposed agreement be rejected.

Social Media Helped Quash Initial Proposal

Car haulers overwhelmingly rejected the first contract proposal presented to the bargaining committee. More than 80% of eligible union members voted against the agreement, which, like the contracts negotiated last fall by the UAW, was analyzed and criticized in a campaign organized on social media.

The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee unanimously has endorsed the tentative agreement, which is retroactive to Sept. 1, 2015 and runs until Aug. 31, 2020.

The union successfully negotiated wage increases and protected health benefits provisions late into the term of the contract to better protect members, Moore says.

“Bargaining grew complicated over the past nine months for several reasons, most notably that the auto-transport sector softened, which in turn caused the employer group to pull back from some of their earlier commitments,” he says.

“Our members were very clear that they wanted their wage and benefits protected, and ultimately we delivered this message in very clear terms to the employers,” Moore says. “This tentative agreement reflects the mandate with which we were sent. Although the unionized carhaul industry still faces many challenges including market share loss, we believe this agreement provides real, long-term job security and a chance for our companies to grow.”

The commitments on health and pension benefits will cost the employers $100 million over the life of the contract, Teamsters officials estimate.

The NATLD had no immediate comment on the pact since the ratification vote has not been held. But union officials say the tentative deal does contain provisions that will allow the carriers to expand their revenue business. For example, the contract in some cases allows drivers to pick up used cars on backhauls rather than return to their yards empty.

The contract also will allow carriers to experiment with new trailers that could carry vehicles on one leg of a trip and then be reconfigured to haul freight on the next stage.

“I’m not saying our carriers are going to invest in these new trailers right away, but when you negotiate a 5-year agreement you have to be willing to look down the road a ways at what’s coming,” Moore says.