Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Yellow declares bankruptcy, blaming Teamsters union for failures

Union leaders accuse debt-ridden freight line of evading its financial obligations through legal maneuvers

yellow Screen Shot 2023-08-07 at 11.42.50 AM.png

The final dominoes fell at Yellow on Sunday, as the debt-ridden freight trucking line filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy after weeks of trying to sell off assets to meet its financial obligations.

Yellow had released its employees and shut its doors on July 30 as the nation’s third-largest less than truckload (LTL) company ended its 99-year run amidst a pile of unpaid debts.


After spending cash to acquire several competing freight fleets in recent years, its first stumble came during the pandemic when the company failed to repay a $700 million federal loan. It then tripped again in July when it missed a contractually obligated, $50 million employees’ healthcare benefit payment. Yellow scrambled to raise quick funds by selling off its third party logistics (3PL) division, but ultimately succumbed to the combined pressures of a cyclical freight sector recession and a Teamsters union strike threat concerning the missing benefits.

Against that background, analysts have been forecasting the formal bankruptcy declaration for weeks. But the Teamsters Union today denounced the move as an “attempt by the company to evade its financial obligations through legal maneuvers.”

“Yellow may try to use the courts to eradicate its financial responsibilities, but they can’t escape the truth. 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,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a release.

The Teamsters said its legal and economic teams are closely following Yellow’s moves throughout bankruptcy proceedings. The union—alongside industry group the American Trucking Associations (ATA)—is also working to find new jobs for the 30,000 former Yellow workers now unemployed, including drivers, dock workers, mechanics, salespeople, and administrative and support personnel.

However, Yellow’s leadership described the fall in different terms, blaming the Teamsters for blocking its “One Yellow” corporate realignment and modernization plan.

“It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business,” Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins said in a release. “All workers and employers should take note of our experience with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and worry. 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.”

Under terms of the bankruptcy, Yellow says it will now continue to manage the business through an “orderly wind-down” process including the marketing and sale of the Company and its subsidiaries.

 

 

The Latest

More Stories

Logistics gives back: October 2024

For the past seven years, third-party service provider ODW Logistics has provided logistics support for the Pelotonia Ride Weekend, a campaign to raise funds for cancer research at The Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. As in the past, ODW provided inventory management services and transportation for the riders’ bicycles at this year’s event. In all, some 7,000 riders and 3,000 volunteers participated in the ride weekend.


Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

siemens logistics airport buggage

Vanderlande to acquire Siemens Logistics for $325 million

The logistics process automation provider Vanderlande has agreed to acquire Siemens Logistics for $325 million, saying its specialty in providing value-added baggage and cargo handling and digital solutions for airport operations will complement Netherlands-based Vanderlande’s business in the warehousing, airports, and parcel sectors.

The acquisition has received approval from the Supervisory and Management Boards of both Vanderlande and its parent company Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) as well as the Management Board of parent company Siemens AG.

Keep ReadingShow less

Resilience is a daily fight

I recently came across a report showing that 86% of CEOs around the world see resiliency problems in their supply chains, and that business leaders are spending more time than ever tackling supply chain-related challenges. Initially I was surprised, thinking that the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic surely prepared industry leaders for just about anything, helping to bake risk and resiliency planning into corporate strategies for companies of all sizes.

But then I thought about the growing number of issues that can affect supply chains today—more frequent severe weather events, accelerating cybersecurity threats, and the tangle of emerging demands and regulations around decarbonization, to name just a few. The level of potential problems seems to be increasing at lightning speed, making it difficult, if not impossible, to plan for every imaginable scenario.

Keep ReadingShow less
AI tops digital supply chain investment priorities

AI tops digital supply chain investment priorities

Investing in artificial intelligence (AI) is a top priority for supply chain leaders as they develop their organization’s technology roadmap, according to data from research and consulting firm Gartner.

AI—including machine learning—and Generative AI (GenAI) ranked as the top two priorities for digital supply chain investments globally among more than 400 supply chain leaders surveyed earlier this year. But key differences apply regionally and by job responsibility, according to the research.

Keep ReadingShow less
voting stickers for election results analysis

Report: Manufacturing leaders should think beyond November election

U.S. manufacturing leaders should think beyond November and focus on responsiveness for building long-term success regardless of who occupies the Oval Office in 2025, according to a report from Propel Software about uncertainty on business conditions as the presidential election approaches.

Regardless of the elected administration, the future likely holds significant changes for trade, taxes, and regulatory compliance. As a result, it’s crucial that U.S. businesses avoid making decisions contingent on election outcomes, and instead focus on resilience, agility, and growth, according to California-based Propel, which provides a product value management (PVM) platform for manufacturing, medical device, and consumer electronics industries.

Keep ReadingShow less