Posted on 07/31/2023 1:25:24 AM PDT by Libloather
Trucking giant Yellow collapsed on Sunday, ceasing operations immediately and leaving some 30,000 workers without jobs.
The closure is the biggest in terms of jobs and revenue in the U.S. trucking industry, according to The Wall Street Journal - which first reported its shutdown.
The company, which received $700 million in federal COVID relief funds in 2020, is preparing to file for bankruptcy and is in talks to sell off all or parts of the business.
The nearly 100-year-old firm is known for its competitive pricing and has more than 12,000 trucks shipping freight across the US for brands including Walmart and Home Depot.
But in recent years it has struggled under the weight of debt and had a highly contentious relationship with the Teamsters union: on Sunday, each side blamed the other.
Hundreds of non-union Yellow employees were laid off Friday from the Nashville, Tennessee, company, and about 22,000 Teamster members were told their jobs hung in the balance.
On Sunday morning, the company sent out notices to customers and employees saying it was ceasing all operations at midday.
Since 2021, the struggling brand has implemented a cost-cutting plan that executives hoped would put the business back on track.
The company's circumstances have become all the more dire as shipping demand across the freight sector declined substantially this year.
Last week, Yellow, which had $5.2 billion in revenue last year, narrowly avoided a driver strike by Teamster union members after failing to make a $50 million payment for employee benefits. The company had a 30-day period to catch up on pension and benefits payments.
The Teamsters blamed the executives for poor management.
'Teamsters have kept this company afloat for more than a decade through billions of dollars in wage, pension and work-rule concessions,' a union spokesman said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Actually, for a lot of these loans, that wasn’t even the stated plan from the start.
It was just a massive giveaway—of our country.
“..Why do I find that statement to be evil?...”
Because it is.
Looks like they were counting on interest rates staying next to nothing for awhile. Lots of people going to be in trouble here as there mortgages come up for renewal - they’re pretty stretched as it is.
As they should be.
LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL
When the government has these kinds of problems and can’t cut costs, they just raise taxes. So, let ME run the operation and I’ll fix it. I’ll strong-arm the other trucking companies out of business and then everyone WILL use Yellow Freight no matter what the rates are. If people running businesses don’t like it, I’ll take their businesses too. Simple.
‘Teamsters have kept this company afloat for more than a decade through billions of dollars in wage, pension and work-rule concessions,’ a union spokesman said.”
Now is the perfect time for the union to step in and show everyone how the company should be run. After all, unions believe they are the reason any unionized entity succeeds.
In the summer of 1970, I was working on road construction in MN. The construction company fired the Teamsters dump truck driver for joy riding down main street honking at the girls.
They had me fill in since I had a chauffeur’s licence. The union boss kept coming around to make me sign up and pay the union dues. The road crew would alert me so I could park the truck and pick up a shovel. No one on the crew could tell the union guy where the temp driver was. That went on for several weeks until I left for school in the Fall.
It was the best summer job ever.
“I am convinced we are being set up for a massive nationalization.”
I think so too. Thanks for sharing your observation about the warehouses.
Just think of the wasted tax money for the COVID bailout. Not to mention the interest on it.
Would you become an owner/operator in the US today?
Where I used to work, a union was foisted on us. The contract language specifially forbade uion members going on strike.
WTF!!??
No, this will be a new form of fascism; the large organizations will be Not-For-Profit organizations, heavily regulated and provided direction by the government. Think of the rules dictating what NFP's can do similar to the federal funding of programs at the state and local level; do what we tell to do, or lose your funding. The difference won't necessarily be funding, but more along the lines of "do what we tell you, or lose you non-profit status."
Is it possible to be successful as a newbie business owner in a Blue Zone? For example, Illinois, New York, Kalifornia, New Jersey, Taxachusetts, and other places like them, or cities who cater to the Blue ways?
During a summer of my college years a buddy and I had a factory job via a temp firm. The employees were union. It was clear we weren’t liked. We worked harder. You could see them looking at us with a stare, at break time they avoided us like the plague. We’d done nothing to them, it was only later that I learned they were union and hated us because we were making them look bad.
Once I graduated and had a good job, I was scolded by my boss for moving my PC from one desk area to another because I had to unplug & plugin to another outlet - that was union electrician’s job.
In another instance I was writing the technical manuals for custom machinery, the union (within the customer) couldn’t agree if certain tasks were ‘electrical or mechanical’ in nature, so the documentation couldn’t be finished and the machine sat on our floor for months (no delivery until the documentation was complete), while we charged them for it taking floor space. Unreal.
I can appreciate unions having their place. I see it like minimum wage though, I don’t see anyone making that...the market demands more. Would ‘evil’ employers take advantage of employees without unions? Sure, but there’s a lot of jobs out there and people won’t put up with much crap. My only experiences with unions have shown they slow everything down and make everything cost a lot more - to the point where the company is no longer competitive.
I’d argue the threat of employees forming a union provides enough of a motivation to keep employers honest. Once unionized though, the primary goal of the union is to protect the union - not what is best for all.
.
Eat the goose teamsters. You scum.
Jimmy Hoffa and his pals, both in gummint and the rackets are the real issue with trucking companies.
Since the inception of satellite tracking systems, the over the road driver is the most controlled human worker since Lincoln freed the slaves.
I really feel for those folks that drive the 18 wheeler rigs.
I am John Galt.
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