Local 710 Secures Strong Protections for ABF Road Drivers
ABF Change of Operations Withdrawn from South Chicago Hub
Teamsters Local 710 secured a big win for freight members at the committee meeting on March 30, reversing a major change of operations at ABF.
ABF recently implemented a change of operations that transferred work traditionally performed by road drivers to utility employees at smaller city terminals. At the South Chicago hub, this would have resulted in a loss of seven road positions. This change already has affected Teamsters across the entire country, particularly members of 19 local unions in the Central Region alone.
The company said it would not lay off any road drivers and that the drivers would be able to move to the city terminals. Teamsters feel this is one more way the company is trying to get rid of road drivers, said Local 710 Business Agent Ted Barnhart, who has worked hard to argue that point.
Ultimately, this would result in a massive reduction of 14,920 road miles available to drivers every single week. Drivers would not only lose bids and see a reduction in pay, but their quality of life would decrease as well.
Ted Barnhart
Local 710 Business Agent
Barnhart presented an extremely strong case to the committee, pushing ABF to move into a private executive session. With the facts presented, the company was forced to withdraw the change of operations from South Chicago.
This was actually the first major case Ted had as an agent, but you never would have known it by the way he expertly fought for our members’ rights. This impressive win shows that Local 710 will not back down from a challenge, and shows companies that
they should never underestimate the strength of the Teamsters Union.
John T. Coli
Trustee of Local 710
Teamsters Local 710 is an affiliate of Teamsters Joint Council 25, America’s premier labor union for Chicago, Illinois and northwest Indiana.