Posted on 07/29/2023 10:28:05 AM PDT by DFG
US trucking firm Yellow has laid off a large number of workers as the company copes with a cash crunch, and is reportedly weighing options including an imminent bankruptcy filing.
The trucking giant on Friday told employees that it is 'shutting down regular operations' and laying off non-union employees 'at all of its locations' according to a memo seen by DailyMail.com.
The layoffs could immediately impact up to 8,000 members of the company's sales force, business operations and technology departments -- and if the company fails, another 22,000 unionized drivers and freight handlers could face unemployment.
Yellow is saddled with some $1.5 billion in debt as of late March, including $729.2 million owed to the federal government for a controversial pandemic-era loan the Treasury Department extended on national security grounds in 2020.
Earlier this 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.
Footage shared on TikTok shows one Yellow worker angrily shouting after learning his health care benefits and pension payments had ceased.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Consolidated Freightways was another LTL that went belly up a few years ago (20 + years ago, it appears). Looks like some other LTLs have also failed in recent years.
Hope the lenders learned something by now (one lender made arrangement for trucks to be dropped off at specified truck stops and gave the drivers rides home; other lenders had to track down trucks that were run out of gas and left beside the road. Think that was Consolidated but it might have been another LTL failure).
Unions probably contributed to its problems.
Probably!
Yet, these dolts are laying off the NON-union thousands, including sales!, first.
You cannot fix this kind of stupid.
Laying off non-Union workers tells you all you need to know.
I avoid ordering through Amazon, spit, dang if half the time packages arrive in their boxes.
A couple days ago, making the trek to town, there were countless 18 wheelers so supplies are being transported. Had to circle back around blocks twice just to get across to the other side of streets.
The company took your $729 million in 2020 and squandered that cash and will not be paying you back. The management of Yellow needs to be investigated.
That’s true.
But the LTL carriers do some OTR, usually team drivers so the truck never stops except for fuel and bathroom breaks. Barring weather, traffic or an accident, a load can be across the country in about 30-35 hours.
For the veteran drivers, with dedicated routes and times, it’s eazy-peazy. For the new guys, it isn’t that way. Sometimes you don’t get a run at all. No driving, no pay.
I started with a company. I was a standby driver. Took whatever was left over or if someone called in sick. Sometimes I worked, sometimes I didn’t. I was one of those guys that would sometimes wait around for hours and hours, waiting on a call. Then you get one, after you’ve been up, idling around the house for 8+ hours and they want you to do a 12hr(total time-prepping & driving). Not a healthy lifestyle and a rather dangerous one if you fall asleep. I had a few, very close calls.
Corporate Raider/Looters.
Check ALL of their accounts.
“Yellow ripped the taxpayer off for $729 million.”
The whole COVID shutdown scam ruined the economy and ruined a generation of children. The feckless government response to COVID is the gift that keeps on giving...and giving and giving and giving.
The upcoming massive commercial real-estate crash was caused by government shutting down the economy and keeping people at home.
You are correct.
Unions can be great. I grew up in a union family. We had the best health insurance on the planet. My dad made great money and was able to get a decent retirement out of it. But, we were straight middle class folks. Nothing more.
However, there seems to have been a shift and not a good one. The relationships between company, worker and unions seems to have become too adversarial. But, one would be ignorant if they ignored the way corporations are being run these days and how the folks running them have a very indifferent attitude toward the workers.
And given the ability to off-shore so many jobs, it’s way too easy for companies to leave.
Add non-American to that too. I see trucks pulling into our warehouse lot that have Pakistani drivers who barely speak English. The drivers have their wife and kid in the cab too. They poop in buckets and dump it at the side of the highway. I am told the owner brings his cousins and neighbors from his village in Pakistan to basically drive as indentured servants
Unions guys definitely can't compete with that
strategic advisor or an investment banker to see if it was one of the usual looters.
Having been caught up in one of those situations, that’s always my first thought.
They may not have. It could be anything. Time will tell.
The concept of a union is a good idea. And the government basically decided that having the mob running the unions was preferable to the Communists running them.
But public sector unions stink on ice.
"When the trucking industry was deregulated nearly 40 years ago, the segment of the industry that handled full trailers of cargo, known as truckload, soon was dominated by non-union trucking companies since all low-cost competitors needed to enter that segment of the industry was a truck.But the LTL segment requires a network of terminals on which to sort incoming and outgoing freight. That limited, but did not prevent, the entry of low-cost competitors. So unionized carriers such as Yellow continued to be major players, even as nonunion rivals grew.
But eventually non-union carriers came to dominate the LTL segment as well. By early in this century, many of the remaining unionized LTL carriers, including Yellow and rivals such as Roadway Express, New Penn and Holland, merged, in an effort to survive.
“Footage shared on TikTok shows one Yellow worker angrily shouting after learning his health care benefits and pension payments had ceased.”
I believe the angry worker was a 30-year + employee who had just found out his pension was gone.
As someone who has pensions with two former employers, I can’t imagine at my age in life, (54), trying to make up for that retirement income if it were to suddenly disappear.
That said, two pensions, Social Security and I continue to invest money into my tax deferred retirement accounts AND Roth accounts.
I invest in retirement until it hurts.
My grandfather always told me, “You have to plan to take care of yourself when you’re older. Nobody is going to take better financial care of you in retirement than you, so start now.”
My 19 year old is opening an IRA this week to put 10% of his earnings away. He doesn’t make much, but wants to start his nest egg as early as he can.
"The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today announced its endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden for president and Senator Kamala Harris of California for vice president, citing their strong record of standing with working families throughout each of their careers."
How are Biden's fuel prices working for you, eh teamsters?
PS Biden has zero sympathy/empathy for you suckers. All they care about is fewer diesel vehicles on the road so your anguish is their joy.
“...other lenders had to track down trucks that were run out of gas and left beside the road”
Wow, did that really happen? The drivers did that on purpose?
You can see how a company like this ends up in a death spiral. They run into financial difficulties due to questionable moves or declining business conditions. Once that happens, word gets out and their customers stop using them to ship loads because they don’t want their freight to be sitting on a Yellow truck if/when the company goes out of business. And that just drives the vicious cycle even faster.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the trucks ran out of fuel because the company’s fuel cards were no longer being accepted at truck stops.
Or, your valuable freight could be stuck somewhere because the union goes on strike.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.