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 ...
The US government basically chose to allow the mob to run the unions instead of the Communists, as was the case in most of Europe.
I guess this is why my sneakers are still “in transit.”
Unions are the syphilis of the American economy.
I’ve known engineers in Germany that aren’t union but speak highly of union workers. They only trust the work by union members. They informed me that to get into the union you must go through a type of apprenticeship, only after years do you get entry into the union. Those in the union are proud of their work and like to show they know what they’re doing.
Very German :) ...but an interesting difference.
BUMP
Yes, I am aware of how it works in Germany with the apprenticeship, and it’s something I always felt has a lot of merit.
The pertinent question is why now?
Why did it take so long for the realization?
“Bidenomics”
killed by the unions, just like Studebaker ...
My son just left the OTR company he was driving for and is applying for other trucking jobs. Hopefully this won’t hurt him much.
The electronic oversight was bizarre. They called him out for idling too much but also told him it’s ok to idle all night to stay warm.
I frequently use a trailer for my job and have to log my travel, A DOT cop told me I needed an electronic log. Big brother is watching.
“...and had a highly contentious relationship with the Teamsters union”
I think I found the problem. Just like democrats, Unions destroy everything they touch. /s
Half of the big rigs rolling in America have advertisements on the back of their trailers, “Drivers wanted.”
The Yellow Freight drivers should be able to work elsewhere immediately.
I guess Yellow won’t be converting the 12,000 truck fleet to electric, will they?
And big cities charging big tolls to deliver downtown.
Trade guilds are not “unions” in the sense of how they operate. They enforce quality and reward skill not mediocricy.
This is the last bastion of white truckers. This company was competing with immigrant truckers and new immigrant trucking companies that allow up to three drivers in every truck making subsistence wages..
I suspect for less pay and benefits....non-union? Don’t know, just a hunch.
If we are doing u ion stories I’ve got one. In 1970, I sat out year to make money for college. I got a job at a local auto parts plant my dad and uncle worked at in management. After my 60-day probationary period the shop steward came to sign me up for the union. During our discussion he let it be known I would be voting no on the upcoming contract proposal. I casually mentioned I would want to read it first then decide how to vote. He informed that wasn’t how it was done. I told him I wouldn’t vote for anything I hadn’t read, for or against. He took the union sign up form back and informed me they didn’t people like me in the union.
Yeah...they don’t want thinkers. My father in-law was a UAW member, I’d see the union newsletters he’d bring home. They practically declared the company to be evil and the managers like demons, where it’s your duty to push back on anything and everything for the goal of never being ‘exploited’. I can’t imagine having that type of mentality pumped into me for 30 years.
Shipping demand across the freight sector declined substantially this year.
More of the Bidenomics building back better.
Money is real tight now no sales no shipping.
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