Current:Home > NewsTeamsters: Yellow trucking company headed for bankruptcy, putting 30,000 jobs at risk-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Teamsters: Yellow trucking company headed for bankruptcy, putting 30,000 jobs at risk
View Date:2024-12-23 19:38:10
Yellow Corp., one of the largest trucking companies in the United States, has halted its operations and is filing for bankruptcy, according to the Teamsters Union and multiple news reports.
The closure threatens the jobs of nearly 30,000 employees at the nearly-century-old freight delivery company, which generates about $5 billion in annual revenue.
After a standoff with the union, Yellow laid off hundreds of nonunion employees on Friday before ceasing operations on Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the actions.
CVS layoffs:Healthcare giant cutting about 5,000 'non-customer facing positions'
The Teamsters, which represents about 22,000 unionized Yellow workers nationwide, announced Monday that the union received legal notice confirming Yellow's decisions, which general president Sean O’Brien called "unfortunate by not surprising."
"Yellow has historically proven that it could not manage itself despite billions of dollars in worker concessions and hundreds of millions in bailout funding from the federal government," O'Brien said in a statement. "This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry."
USA TODAY could not immediately reach a representative from Yellow Corp. for comment.
Yellow bankruptcy had long loomed amid debt woes
The trucking company, whose 17.5 million annual shipments made it the third-largest in the U.S., had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion as of March and has continued to lose customers as its demise appeared imminent.
With customers leaving — as well as reports of Yellow stopping freight pickups last week — bankruptcy would “be the end of Yellow,” Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, told The Associated Press, noting increased risk for liquidation.
With bankruptcy looming, the company has been battling against the union for months.
Yellow sued the Teamsters in June after alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans needed for the company’s survival, litigation the union called “baseless." O’Brien pointed to Yellow’s “decades of gross mismanagement,” which included exhausting a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the government, which the company has failed to repay in full.
'We gave and we gave'
The company is based in Nashville, Tennessee with employees spread among more than 300 terminals nationwide.
In Ohio's northeastern Summit County, hundreds of Yellow employees left jobless Monday expressed frustration to the Akron Beacon Journal, a USA TODAY Network publication. Many union workers told the Beacon-Journal that the company had failed to take advantage of wage and benefit concessions the Teamsters had made in order to keep the hauler out of a financial quagmire.
In the Summit County township of Copley, the company's terminal was blocked this week by trailers with a sign posted at the guard gate saying operations had ceased on Sunday.
"I thought I'd leave on my own terms, not theirs," Keith Stephensen, a Copley dock worker who said he started with Yellow 35 years ago in New York, told the Beacon-Journal. "We gave and we gave."
After efforts to help resolve Yellow's financial situation were unsuccessful, the Teamsters said Monday that it would shift focus to instead help its members find "good union jobs in freight and other industries."
UPS labor contract:UPS, Teamsters avoid massive strike, reach tentative agreement on new contract
News of Yellow's collapse comes after the Teamsters last week secured an agreement to stave off another strike with UPS following months of negotiations, preventing a crippling blow to the nation's logistics network.
Following a bargaining process that began last August, the five-year agreement avoided what would have been the largest single employer strike in U.S. history.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected].
veryGood! (35172)
Related
- Mike Williams Instagram post: Steelers' WR shades Aaron Rodgers 'red line' comments
- Americans sharply divided over whether Biden acted wrongly in son’s businesses, AP-NORC poll shows
- Confirmed heat deaths in hot Arizona metro keep rising even as the weather grows milder
- Apple picking season? In Colorado, you can pick your own hemp
- Tua Tagovailoa tackle: Dolphins QB laughs off taking knee to head vs. Rams on 'MNF'
- Thousands sign up to experience magic mushrooms as Oregon’s novel psilocybin experiment takes off
- Sean Penn, Superpower co-director, says Zelenskyy changed as Russia invaded: Like he was born for this
- Selena Gomez Is Proudly Putting a Spotlight on Her Mexican Heritage—On and Off Screen
- 'Yellowstone' premiere: Record ratings, Rip's ride and Billy Klapper's tribute
- US casinos have their best July ever, winning nearly $5.4B from gamblers
Ranking
- Man who stole and laundered roughly $1B in bitcoin is sentenced to 5 years in prison
- Iraq steps up repatriations from Islamic State camp in Syria, hoping to reduce militant threats
- You Have to CO2 Brie Larson in Lessons In Chemistry Trailer
- Step Inside Channing Tatum and Zoë Kravitz's Star-Studded Date Night
- 'Red One' review: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans embark on a joyless search for Santa
- He couldn’t see his wedding. But this war-blinded Ukrainian soldier cried with joy at new love
- Five restaurants in Colorado earn Michelin Guide stars, highest accolade in culinary world
- Colleges with the most NFL players in 2023: Alabama leads for seventh straight year
Recommendation
-
Celtics' Jaylen Brown calls Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo a 'child' over fake handshake
-
Slot machines and phone lines still down after MGM cyberattack Sunday. What to expect.
-
Researcher shows bodies of purported non-human beings to Mexican congress at UFO hearing
-
How Latin music trailblazers paved the way to mainstream popularity
-
More than 150 pronghorns hit, killed on Colorado roads as animals sought shelter from snow
-
Timeline: Hunter Biden under legal, political scrutiny
-
A judge must now decide if Georgia voting districts are racially discriminatory after a trial ended
-
Arkansas officials say person dies after brain-eating amoeba infection, likely exposed at splash pad