A union representing pilots and other flight crew members of the cargo delivery airline ABX Air Inc. is questioning recent decisions of senior management at ABX Holdings Inc., the corporate parent of ABX Air. Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224 said some of its members, who are shareholders of ABX, plan to attend the company's annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, May 13, at 11 a.m. at the Roberts Convention Centre along Interstate 71 near Wilmington, Ohio. The company and the union are each based in Wilmington.

The union said it will host a "shareholders awareness reception" next door to the meeting room, just before the shareholders' meeting. And union leaders have created a Web site to list its questions at www.askjoehete.com, a reference to Joe Hete, president and chief executive officer of ABX Holdings.

"The fact that we had to draw those questions up means we think they have no plan," Dave Ross, the union's president, said Monday.

Beth Huber, a spokeswoman for ABX Air, said the company has been profitable in every quarter during recent years since becoming publicly traded. Management shares the company's business plan with all shareholders, including pilots represented by Local 1224, she said.

Shares of ABX (NasdaqGS: ABXA) were up 9 cents on Monday to close at $2.63, down sharply from a high of $8.56 during the past year.

The pilots' union is questioning why ABX Holdings has not combined three operations it owns: ABX Air, Capital Cargo International and Air Transport International. The union contends that those three companies have "virtually identical business models" and that money could be saved by combining their maintenance and corporate operations.

The union also said that ABX's board of directors last year rejected a $7.75 per share offer from ASTAR Air Cargo Holdings Inc., a $450 million offer to buy ABX, without disclosing the opinion of ABX's financial adviser about the offer. Union leaders said that gave ABX shareholders no basis for the decision to reject the ASTAR offer, which ABX's board described as inadequate.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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