Last summer, ABF Freight, a subsidiary of ArcBest Corp. of Fort Smith, received a $4 million grant from a Memphis-area economic development group to relocate in Memphis. ArcBest, through affiliate Transport Realty Inc., bought two properties totaling 13.55 acres at the proposed relocation site for about $600,000 in 2014.
The company told the Teamsters union that 25-40 jobs, out of 380, would remain in North Little Rock after the move. But as of last week, the union has not been contacted with an official change of operations notification.
Kathy Fieweger, chief marketing officer of ArcBest, said in an email the company did not have any new information on the possible relocation, including whether the delay in moving east was affected by the retirement in October of Roy Slagle, ABF’s longtime CEO. Slagle was replaced by Tim Thorne.
Tim Nichols, the head of Teamsters Local 878, said the uncertainty has led several union members to leave ABF Freight for more security at UPS Freight. Nichols said the Teamsters are trying to be optimistic that “no news is good news.”
No comments:
Post a Comment