Conveying with ease
Plate chain conveyor
The flexible conveyor system
; Multidimensional conveyor adaptable to virtually
any layout
; One conveyor to replace many, eliminating transfers,
drives, controls and installation costs
; Reusable components that can be easily
reconfigured or expanded in the future
; Chain is never under tension and requires
no lubrication or take-up
; Rolling technology allows for long runs with
minimum energy requirements
; Robust design ensures continued operations
in industrial operations
; Modular components making it quick and easy
to install
; Proven over 25 years
deniway is manufactured by Denipro AG in Weinfelden,
Switzerland and is sold, serviced and supported in North
America by their sister company, WRH Marketing Americas.
Contact us now to find out how deniway can help you.
Come see deniway
in operation during
Promat at Booth #4527!
WRH Marketing Americas
3150 Brunswick Pike, Suite 220
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
+ 1 856-842-0600 x101, x112
Denipro-sales@wrh-marketing-americas.com
www.denipro.com
Between 2008 and 2011, financially ailing YRC, facing
possible bankruptcy and coping with massive customer
defections, shed 38,000 shipments a day, according to SJ
data. This translated into an 18-percent compounded
annual shipment loss. ABF reported a 1.8-percent annual
shipment decline during that period, meaning it was
unable to capitalize on YRC’s woes.
YRC Freight’s share of the long-haul market dropped to
27 percent in 2011 from 42 percent in 2006. Yet ABF’s share
fell to 7 percent from 10 percent during that time, according to SJ data.
“There is no question that labor costs are an issue for
ABF,” said Satish Jindel, SJ’s president and a long-time
industry executive and consultant. “But they are not the
only issue, and they are not the biggest issue.”
MAKING LABOR PEACE
Still, a Teamster contract that affords ABF some degree of
cost relief would go a long way toward allaying marketplace
and investor concerns. It has been a difficult last five years
for the company as its labor costs have spiraled to levels
that make it tough to compete just with unionized YRC,
not to mention the nonunion companies that constitute
most of the LTL segment.
ABF’s current problems began in the 2007–08 period,
when the last National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA),
the compact that governs labor relations between the
Teamsters and the remaining unionized truckers, came up
for renewal. At the time, ABF wanted to exit the NMFA and
bargain independently. According to ABF, it was persuaded
by the union to remain in the pact under the proviso that
the contract’s terms would apply to all parties in the
NMFA. A Teamster spokeswoman did not respond to a
request for comment.
ABF’s worst fears were realized the following year when
YRC negotiated the first of three extraordinary agreements
with the Teamsters calling for wage and pension cuts
through 2015. ABF asked its rank and file for similar concessions, but its employees, defying the recommendations
of Teamster leadership, rejected management’s proposal.
ABF then sued YRC and the Teamsters’ negotiating arm
over the separate concessions, claiming they were illegal
because they were negotiated outside of the NMFA. It also
requested $750 million in damages. But in late 2010, U.S.
District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright rejected ABF’s
claim, ruling it had no legal standing to contest the agreements. After the case was remanded to Judge Wright on
appeal by a federal appeals court, she ruled against the
company again in 2012.
ABF is considering another court challenge, despite calls
by some to drop the legal fight and concentrate instead on
the contract talks. “We’ve been told all along by our lawyers
that they had no case,” said Ken Paff, national organizer of
Teamster dissident group Teamsters for a Democratic
Union.
