Teamsters OK Contract With Trucking Firms

Members of the Teamsters ratified a new five-year contract with the nation’s long-haul trucking companies, the union and an industry association said. The contract, approved by 70% of the voting members, features pension and benefit improvements, a $750 bonus in the first year, and 35-cents-an-hour wage increases over the next four years--so that senior drivers will make $19.86 an hour by the final year. Terms of the national master freight agreement were negotiated by the Teamsters and the four largest long-haul truckers--Yellow Corp., Roadway Express Inc., Consolidated Freightways Corp. and ABF Freight Systems Inc. The contract directly covers 136,000 Teamsters drivers. Separately, the Teamsters’ largest reform group endorsed Ken Hall for the union’s presidency, making him the likely candidate to face off against James P. Hoffa in a rerun election later this year.