Posts tagged Yellow Trucking
Op-ed: A GOP-Teamsters Alliance Makes No Sense
August 24, 2025 // Republicans getting on board with these ideas aren’t just awkward—they’re incoherent. There’s little evidence that endorsements from Teamsters executives move the needle in general elections, for parties or for candidates. Can Republicans credibly argue that filling the Teamsters’ coffers (and campaign-donation kitty) will result in the sort of political realignment some hope for, or even a lasting political windfall? The only guaranteed outcome is more power for the Teamsters and other unions over U.S. labor relations. If these overtures to the Teamsters backfire, Republicans can’t say they weren’t warned. As one GOP politician running for Missouri attorney general tweeted in 2015, after labor-aligned Republicans derailed state right-to-work legislation, “time for an end to union-backed candidates in GOP.”
The Delivery Business Shows Why Unions Are Struggling to Expand
May 29, 2024 // But the union has also suffered losses. Yellow, a trucking company that employed 24,000 Teamsters, shut down and filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Amazon and FedEx said they were confident in their approach to managing and compensating workers. Amazon said it had made investments that bolstered pay and benefits at its delivery contractors. FedEx said its nonunion model allowed it to quickly increase pay whereas UPS’s union employees were bound by the terms of five-year contracts.
COMMENTARY: What Big Labor Doesn’t Want You to Know This Labor Day
September 5, 2023 // "Yet, instead of adapting and finding ways to still provide value to workers, unions have maintained strictly seniority-based compensation structures and rigid workplace rules that reduce workers’ productivity, pay, and flexibility. That ends up hurting workers who desire autonomy and flexibility. For example, young workers who are parents typically lack the seniority needed to choose the hours they want. And workers who want to put in extra effort to earn a pay raise have little incentive to do so because most union contracts prohibit employers from giving employees performance-based pay raises or bonuses that exceed the union-negotiated pay scales."
Opinion: TALKING TRANSPORTATION: Union Power and the Potential Strike at Metro-North
August 8, 2023 // The union, which represents car inspectors, coach cleaners and mechanics has been without a contract since 2019 and says MTA management is dragging its heels on a new contract. The union has entered mediation through the Railroad Labor Act but says the first round did not go well. Under New York State law the union does have the right to strike and that would pretty much halt train service. But the effect of that might be far less in these post-COVID times as we’ve all learned how to WFH (work from home). This labor unrest comes as the MTA admits it paid $1.3 billion in overtime last year. About 1100 of its employees doubled their salaries with OT. There are mechanics and MTA cops taking home over $300,000 due to extra duty. Under their contracts, available overtime must first be offered to the most senior (and highest paid) staffers so those veterans, closest to retirement, are raking it in.
Who’s on strike and who’s close? Labor unions are flexing
August 8, 2023 // Recent decades suggest there won’t be a strike at more than one at once. UAW (United Auto Workers) typically picks one “target” at which to focus negotiations and possibly strike and then demand that the other two unionized automakers agree to the same “pattern” deal. That one really has the chance to hurt the Democrats since the union is very upset about the auto industry plans to shift to EVs (electric vehicles). They see EVs as a jobs killer because of so many fewer parts – it takes about one-third fewer jobs to build an EV than an internal combustion engine (ICE) car. And many of the EV jobs are at battery plants being built nationwide right now, but which are joint ventures between the automakers and foreign battery companies, and thus not guaranteed to be unionized. Even if those battery plants end up with a union, it’s not clear the joint venture will agree to UAW-level wages. The one UAW-represented plant in Ohio pays roughly half of what workers are paid at an engine or transmission plant owned by one of the Big Three (US automakers) and represented by the UAW.
Teamsters Sacrifices 30,000 Workers: 3 Ways Union Contributed to Yellow Trucking’s Demise
August 2, 2023 // A key reason Yellow was said to be closing its doors is that the union was refusing Yellow’s restructuring and modernization efforts. Part of that restructuring would have included efficiency savings by enabling an additional 600 utility truck drivers to also sometimes perform dock work, but the union controls what tasks workers are allowed to perform, and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien asserted that this restructuring “would have decimated thousands of Teamsters jobs.” Instead, the union’s refusal to allow company management to do what it felt necessary to save the business contributed to the decimation of 22,000 Teamsters jobs.
Trucking giant Yellow shuts down: The 99-year-old company which has almost 30,000 staff and 12,000 big-rigs ceases operations immediately
July 31, 2023 // 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. A June 2023 congressional report concluded the Treasury Department dodged its own policies to issue the loan and the previous administration had made a mistake in doing so. In May, Yellow reported a loss of $54.6 million, a decline of $1.06 per share, for its first quarter of 2023. Operating revenue was about $1.16 billion in the period.
National Right to Work Foundation Issues Legal Notice to Yellow Trucking Employees as Teamsters Officials Threaten Strike
July 25, 2023 // All Yellow employees should know they have the right to resign their membership in the Teamsters union and continue to do their jobs. However, because federal law regarding union membership is complex and because union officials often threaten workers who refuse to strike with ruinous fines or other punishments, we recommend you read this entire legal notice before taking action. We also recommend you
Strike at trucking firm Yellow averted after deal
July 24, 2023 // In 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump bailed out the company with a $700 million pandemic relief loan. In exchange, the federal government took a 30% stake in Yellow. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company formerly called YRC Worldwide has not significantly repaid that loan, which is part of $1.2 billion in debt it is scrambling to refinance before it comes due next year. Yellow's other lenders include a group led by Apollo Global Management (APO.N). Company executives appealed to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for help slashing expenses as cash dwindles. It has successfully won such concessions in the past, but this time was rebuffed by new Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien. "Following years of worker give backs, federal loans, and other bail outs, this deadbeat company has only itself to blame for being in this embarrassing position," O'Brien said in a statement last week. O’Brien is also leading negotiations covering roughly 340,000 U.S. employees at United Parcel Service (UPS.N). A federal judge in Kansas on Friday rejected Yellow's request to block the Teamsters from striking over the delinquent benefit payments.
Teamsters Plan 22,000-Worker Strike at Trucking Firm Yellow
July 20, 2023 // Pension accruals and health-care benefits will be suspended July 23 if Yellow doesn’t make the necessary payment, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Tuesday in a statement. The union said it’s preparing for a strike as early as July 24. Yellow, the third-largest less-than-truckload carrier, has been struggling financially as it seeks to refinance more than $1 billion of debt that matures in 2024. Its stock has been in a tailspin, plunging about 60% in 2023 and more than 90% since the beginning of last year. Less-than-truckload competitors — such as Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., XPO Inc. and FedEx Corp.’s freight unit — “stand to gain from the drama unfolding at Yellow,” Lee Klaskow, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a note.