NASHVILLE — Yellow Corporation has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).
The company made the announcement on Tuesday, June 27, in a news release.
The complaint alleges that the Teamsters “breached their binding union contract with Yellow, causing more than $137 million in damages by unjustifiably blocking, for over eight months, Yellow’s restructuring plan to modernize its business, which is necessary to compete against non-union carriers that dominate the LTL business today.”
Yellow’s complaint further states that “These modernization efforts, known as One Yellow, are essential to the company’s survival.”
The Trucker has reached out to Teamsters officials for comment on this issue.
Yellow officials say that “without these crucial reforms, which are standard practice in the industry today, Yellow likely will not survive, 30,000 jobs will be lost, including 22,000 union jobs, and its shareholders, including the federal government, which owns 30.1% of Yellow stock, will be severely damaged.”
In a news release earlier this year, Teamsters officials stated that they “oppose any change of operations written in vague language or drafted to erode contractual standards and practices.”
“Yellow will not be allowed to disrupt and upend our members’ lives,” Teamsters National Freight Director John A. Murphy said in the earlier news release.
The Teamsters said they “demand that established work standards and contractual protections be maintained, that primary lanes be preserved, and traditional road driver classifications and dock workers be protected.”
“The Teamsters are done making concessions and we will not be pushed around,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in the earlier news release. “Our focus rests solely on protecting our members. If Yellow management gets in the way of that, we will go after this company with everything we’ve got.”
In a statement, Yellow Corporation’s management team said that the Union’s leadership has left them no choice but to sue.
“For many months, we have made good faith efforts to meet with the IBT to propose a path forward that works for all parties, but they refuse even to meet, let alone engage in honest talks,” according to the statement. “We have communicated with all stakeholders in Washington, D.C., including the Biden Administration, to apprise it of the imminent loss of tens of thousands of jobs, the significant anti-competitive effects on the American economy and the devastating impact to the supply chain, and to seek their assistance in persuading the IBT to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement. We are fighting for the livelihood of our 30,000 employees who are good hard-working people. We will do all we can to save these American jobs and to protect our shareholders, including the American taxpayer.”
The complaint also alleges that O’Brien “orchestrated these breaches and has prevented Yellow from meeting with IBT leadership. For several years, the IBT had endorsed the company’s modernization effort and, in fact, approved the first of the effort’s three phases before the IBT reversed itself taking, in Mr. O’Brien’s words, a ‘militant approach’ to blocking Yellow’s modernization.”
Yellow executives say that completion of One Yellow in 2023 “is critical to Yellow’s ability to survive, particularly given that Yellow faces, among other things, the imminent need to refinance $1.3 billion in debt — a $567.4 million term loan maturing on June 30, 2024, and a $729.4 million U.S. Treasury loan maturing on September 30, 2024. Nonetheless, as alleged, the Union has blocked Yellow’s completion of One Yellow, triggering grave uncertainty for employees, investors and customers, and has knowingly intended to cause Yellow’s economic ruin.”
Yellow executives claim that O’Brien “has taken up the role of public agitator for the company’s demise, recently tweeting an image of a headstone in a cemetery with ‘Yellow’ on it.”
Yellow’s statement further said that O-Brien “has continued to hide behind numerous false, unconstructive, and irresponsible social media posts maligning the company, while refusing to discuss a path forward with the company itself.”
Yellow officials contend that they wouldn’t have had to file suit if Teamsters officials had agreed to “negotiate in good faith.”
“Yellow must now take immediate steps to try to save itself,” according to the Yellow statement. “Yellow is entitled to $137.3 million (and counting) for the injury the Union has caused Yellow, and continues to cause Yellow, and in the event of its demise, at least $1.5 billion for the loss in enterprise value Yellow is sustaining as a result of the Union’s breaches.”
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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