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LABOR: Teamsters say no to YRC Worldwide deal
Unionized workers at logistics giant YRC Worldwide have rejected the company’s proposal that would have called for them to give up contracted wage increases and pension payments, a union spokesman said Thursday, Jan. 9.
A Teamsters spokesman posted a notice on the union’s website Thursday afternoon that said 61 percent of the workforce voted against the contract modifications. Members were asked to make these adjustments and extend their current contract until 2019 to help the company avert a debt crisis. YRC owes its creditors about $1 billion in 2014.
Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC owns trucking brands Yellow Freight, USF Reddaway, New Penn and others. It has about 26,000 employees across the country, including about 1,500 at various trucking terminals in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
The company asked Teamsters leaders for the contract concessions in early December, and the union agreed to put it to a vote without making any recommendation to the rank-and-file.
YRC Worldwide CEO James Welch said in a statement that it was a disappointment, and said the timing of the vote could have worked against the company.
“Many employees had already returned their ballots prior to December 23, the date the company announced it had a refinancing agreement in place. We believe that was information employees needed to make a fully informed decision,” said Welch.
The company has been in a difficult financial situation for more than five years from a string of buyouts of competing trucking companies that left YRC weighed down by debt. The company almost went under four years ago, and Teamsters members have given up an estimated $3 billion in wage and pension concessions over those years.
“Our members have made huge sacrifices to keep this company alive and a majority made the decision not to sacrifice anymore,” Tyson Johnson, director of the National Freight Division, said in a statement.
The decision puts the company in a precarious position. In a Dec. 10 government filing, the company said that without the labor deal, “we may be unable to restructure or refinance the portions of our debt which will mature in September of 2014 and March of 2015. If we are unable to restructure or refinance our maturing debt, we will not have sufficient liquidity to repay the amounts owed.”
Unionized workers at logistics giant YRC Worldwide have rejected the company’s proposal that would have called for them to give up contracted wage increases and pension payments, a union spokesman said Thursday, Jan. 9.
A Teamsters spokesman posted a notice on the union’s website Thursday afternoon that said 61 percent of the workforce voted against the contract modifications. Members were asked to make these adjustments and extend their current contract until 2019 to help the company avert a debt crisis. YRC owes its creditors about $1 billion in 2014.
Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC owns trucking brands Yellow Freight, USF Reddaway, New Penn and others. It has about 26,000 employees across the country, including about 1,500 at various trucking terminals in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
The company asked Teamsters leaders for the contract concessions in early December, and the union agreed to put it to a vote without making any recommendation to the rank-and-file.
YRC Worldwide CEO James Welch said in a statement that it was a disappointment, and said the timing of the vote could have worked against the company.
“Many employees had already returned their ballots prior to December 23, the date the company announced it had a refinancing agreement in place. We believe that was information employees needed to make a fully informed decision,” said Welch.
The company has been in a difficult financial situation for more than five years from a string of buyouts of competing trucking companies that left YRC weighed down by debt. The company almost went under four years ago, and Teamsters members have given up an estimated $3 billion in wage and pension concessions over those years.
“Our members have made huge sacrifices to keep this company alive and a majority made the decision not to sacrifice anymore,” Tyson Johnson, director of the National Freight Division, said in a statement.
The decision puts the company in a precarious position. In a Dec. 10 government filing, the company said that without the labor deal, “we may be unable to restructure or refinance the portions of our debt which will mature in September of 2014 and March of 2015. If we are unable to restructure or refinance our maturing debt, we will not have sufficient liquidity to repay the amounts owed.”