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August-September Report From Walter R. Maestas
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Report From Walter R. Maestas: Secretary-Treasurer
Hopefully the worst is over, who knows what the future holds. The fate of the historic National Master Freight Agreement is in limbo due to this economic collapse that we have been experiencing nationwide. A very long time ago when deregulation took place, speculation was that in the future there would be possibly five (5) major freight carriers left. As we have seen over the years the speculation that occurred many years ago has slowly but surely come to fruition, as many of the unionized carriers as well as non-union carriers have bit the dust and gone by the wayside. Recently (within the last 10 years) there were approximately four (4) major union carriers that were in existence and those were Yellow Transportation, Roadway Express, ABF Freight System, and Consolidated Freightways along with a few smaller companies. Along with the closure of CF and the merger of Yellow and Roadway to become YRC (to include USF Reddaway and USF Holland) there is only two (2) major carriers left in existence. The financial problems that have hit YRC hard due to the aforementioned collapse that really hit hard around October/November 2008 has left ABF as the sole unionized carrier that has seemed to be able to withstand these terrible times financially. The non-union competitors out there would like for you to believe that the problem has been that the above mentioned companies have been hit hard due to their contractual obligations, but these economic times have hit everyone in the pocket both union and also non-union to include all walks of life. If there is anyone out there who thinks that things aren’t bad, in all walks of life, then you must not read the papers or listen to the radio or have watched a television set as there are companies shutting down everywhere. Obviously by the time this is read we will know if the YRC problems have been resolved and/or worst case scenario the NMFA has been dissolved.
Hopefully we will have some daylight with regards to the future and everyone will have something to look forward to, but right now we are in some scary times and hopefully the worst is behind us. The word out there is that the speculators are predicting that the third (3rd) quarter will start the recovery and I hope that they are right for everybody’s sake.
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