Posted on 08/01/2023 5:22:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
Yellow Corp., a 99-year-old trucking company that was once a dominant player in its field, halted operations Sunday and will lay off all 30,000 of its workers.
The unionized company has been in a battle with the Teamsters union, which represents about 22,000 drivers and dock workers at the company. Just a week ago the union canceled a threatened strike that had been prompted by the company failing to contribute to its pension and health insurance plans. The union granted the company an extra month to make the required payments.
But by midweek last week, the company had stopped picking up freight from its customers and was making deliveries only of freight already in its system, according to both the union and Satish Jindel, a trucking industry consultant.
While the union agreed not to go on strike against Yellow, it could not reach an agreement on a new contract with the trucking company, according to a memo sent to local unions Thursday by the Teamsters’ negotiating committee. The union said early Monday that it had been notified of the shutdown.
“Today’s news is unfortunate but 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. This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry,” said Teamsters President Sean O’Brien in a statement.
Company officials did not respond to numerous requests for comment Sunday and Monday.
While the company is based in Nashville, Tennessee, it is a national company with terminals and employees spread between more than 300 terminals nationwide. Experts in the field said it was primarily an unaffordable amount of debt, more than the cost of the union contract, that did in Yellow.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Sad Diesel ping..................
Make a deal with the devil and you always get burned.
And the union people crawled awaaaaaaay..................................
with a pay cut!
Managerial incompetence plus Teamsters, but probably more the former than the latter, per a friend familiar with the trucking industry I trust. An article on the history he recommends, and a podcast.
Yellow’s demise: 2 decades in the making
Company shuts down, bankruptcy filing expected
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellows-demise-2-decades-in-the-making
I Just Told Over 11 Million Listners On NPR News That Mismanagement Bankrupted Yellow Trucking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0GwJfeSS-Y
Not that the NPR in that means anything, other than a good guy got a lot of exposure, which isn’t a bad thing.
Allentown
Billy Joel
[Verse 1]
Well, we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time
Filling out forms, standing in line
[Verse 2]
Well, our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance, danced with them slow
[Chorus]
And we’re living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it’s getting very hard to stay
[Verse 3]
Well, we’re waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard, if we behaved
[Verse 4]
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke, chromium steel
[Chorus]
And we’re waiting here in Allentown
But they’ve taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
[Bridge]
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened
On the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
[Chorus]
Well I’m living here in Allentown
And it’s hard to keep a good man down
But I won’t be getting up today
[Instrumental Break]
[Outro]
And it’s getting very hard to stay
And we’re living here in Allentown
There's a new kid on the block
Yellow was the consolidator of failing union driver freight companies of which Roadway was the most noteworthy. They are gone as well. This will kill the Teamsters criminal enterprise
Self-driving trucks.........................
What happens to everything that is being shipped? Does it just rot away in dusty trailers and abandoned warehouses and sorting rooms?
Unions need to be decertified by their members.
These people will be hired immediately by other trucking companies and I trust those companies do not have company killing unions.
I saw an Amazon van yesterday. It was made by Rivian. I talked with the driver asking her if it was difficult to drive. After she described driving this thing, we both said “golf cart” and the same time. Weird looking vehicle. Tall and skinny with a huge windshield.
My kid is a trucker. He just quit his company since he’s moving to a new state.
I’m afraid he might have a challenge getting another job.
His pluses-He’s a flatbed driver. Yellow is all dry van, which is a significantly easier job.
He’s non-union.
Looks like Ford really blew it
Back in the old days when the management of corporations abused workers the unions were a blessing. Now that role is reversed.
Do you believe in free markets?
This is part of the creative destruction inherent in free markets. Shippers will find new carriers that don’t suck, as Yellow obviously did.
Life will go on with less suck. Things improve.
This is the way. No government bailouts needed.
American interstate highways are loaded with big trucks pulling trailers painted with advertising: “Drivers Wanted” and an 800 number to call.
Yellow Freight drivers should be able to work elsewhere.
but isn’t there a shortage of drivers countrywide? hopefully many workers will get absorbed into a needy system
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