The labor union that represents drivers at the established less-than-truckload carrier, Yellow, is expressing strong disapproval of the company’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy declaration. The union condemns any effort by the company to avoid its financial responsibilities using legal tactics.
“Yellow may try to use the courts to eradicate its financial responsibilities, but they can’t escape the truth,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement Monday. “Teamster families sacrificed billions of dollars in wages, benefits, and retirement security to rescue Yellow. The company blew through a $700 million government bailout. But Yellow’s dysfunctional, greedy C-suite failed to take responsibility for squandering all that cash. They still don’t. They shamelessly pin their corporate incompetence on working people. This is what’s wrong with Big Business. This is a reminder of why workers’ ability to organize and collectively bargain is so crucial to protecting and creating good jobs in America.”
After announcing its insolvency, Yellow pointed to the union as the cause of its financial problems. The company, which has been around for 99 years, claimed that the union hindered its efforts to streamline operations and reduce expenses effectively.
“All workers and employers should take note of our experience with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and worry,” said Yellow’s Chief Executive Officer Darren Hawkins. “We faced nine months of union intransigence, bullying and deliberately destructive tactics. A company has the right to manage its own operations, but as we have experienced, IBT leadership was able to halt our business plan, literally driving our company out of business, despite every effort to work with them.”
Yellow and the Teamsters have maintained a strained association for a considerable duration. In the current year alone, the Teamsters issued a strike ultimatum due to Yellow’s failure to fulfill $50 million in pension and health benefit disbursements. In retaliation, Yellow took legal action against the union, seeking $137 million in damages, citing obstruction of the company’s intended amalgamation of diverse shipping services.
In its latest declaration, the Teamsters reaffirmed its censures of Yellow, drawing parallels to other trucking firms it has contractual arrangements with.
“Yellow management and the financiers who pull the strings continue to blame union contracts for their demise,” O’Brien said. “The fact is, Teamster-represented companies like ABF and TForce Freight are not only able to fairly compensate workers, they are also wildly profitable. The Teamsters successfully and continuously negotiates strong contracts to preserve the integrity of our members’ work and ensure they are justly compensated. More than 15,000 members overwhelmingly ratified powerful new national agreements at both ABF and TForce in just the past two months.”
The Teamsters have stated that their legal and financial experts are meticulously monitoring Yellow’s actions during the course of its bankruptcy proceedings.
Yellow’s declaration of bankruptcy resulted in the termination of approximately 30,000 staff members, including 22,000 drivers.
