The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled Friday against less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp.’s request for an injunction, which would have kept its Teamsters employees from engaging in a work stoppage.
In her decision, Senior Judge Julie Robinson denied a motion for a temporary restraining order and injunction.
The decision allows the union to carry through with a planned strike, which could begin as soon as Monday. The final straw prompting the strike was Yellow’s missed benefits contribution payment to Central States Funds last week, which will leave workers without health insurance on Sunday.
The two parties have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over operational changes for the last nine months. The carrier has maintained that without the changes it wouldn’t survive while the union took the stance that it had given enough in the past in the form of wages, benefits and work rules concessions.
“The company has two more days to fulfill its obligations or we will strike,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said following the decision. “Teamsters at Yellow are furious and ready to act. They are done with the mistreatment and mismanagement.”
In its filing seeking an injunction, Yellow said it would likely file for bankruptcy if the court didn’t rule in its favor.
“Absent injunctive relief, Plaintiffs will suffer immediate, substantial, and irreparable harm from Defendants’ unlawful work stoppage, including being forced into a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy proceeding.”
In a news release late Friday, Yellow said it would appeal the court’s decision and continue to pursue its breach of contract lawsuit against the Teamsters.
“The court, recognizing a strike would likely kill the company, resulting in the loss of 30,000 jobs, cautioned the Union — that while it won today’s battle, it could very well lose the war,” the statement said.
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John Sobolewski Jr.
Just Look what happened to Consolidated Freightways they shut the doors on Labor Day and slapped the Teamsters in the face because of the executives who are also so greedy… is the saying goes you can’t get blood from a rock… I am a retired teamster I’m getting my pension every month I feel for you guys at yellow… in my opinion it’s greedy management and orders from Wall Street executives who owns stock… I remember reading a story about yellow freight I think it was 1978 he had an accident driving one of those Cabover non-sleepers…. oh he was decapitated and died in the accident… it’s time to decapitate yellow
Holland driver
Yellow and teamsters are a joke
Holland driver
Sad / yellow and teamsters are a joke
GNR TRANSPORT INC.
Cool more freight for the rest of us. Does anybody remember consolidated freight ? Here we go hang on to your steering wheel alot of union guy’s that are losing all there pensions and retirement are getting ready to come down here looking for work with the rest of us. Shame that this is happening to them but let those union dues take care of them till they help elevate the so called driver shortage.
B
Thats what you get when you put your faith in the teamsters. You chose to gamble with your future with the teamsters. Now this is what you get.
Instead of walking a pickett line howabout going and finding a new driving job. Yellow needs to fold and be dissolved. DO NOT use taxpayers money to save them. Thats throwing good money at bad.
Phillip DeWitt
There will be many former Yellow employees who want be able to get a job as non union companies want hire them. I was a thirty some year supervisor with Yellow and Roadway. Deregulation under Jimmy Carter started the Union trucking downturn.
Ken Canter
We have gave back for 14 years to the amount of about $180,000 per person the mismanagement and constant wasting money shouldn’t fall on our shoulders after the company has not fulfilled the agreement to pay into our pension now we will suffer and our new employees won’t have one while Hawkins and his cronies receive massive bonuses it’s time to end there robbing the workers of what they deserve.
Peter Oetker
The demise of Yellow was very predictable. The One Yellow Strategy essentially forced all parts of the company to be dumbed down to the lowest performing unit, Yellow/Roadway. The financially best performing units, New Penn, Holland, Reddaway were gutted to become like Yellow/Roadway. Yellow/Roadway became a company that was chronically late, breaks freight and reloads it five times to feed the breakbulk monsters to justify their existence.
The management that conceived the One Yellow strategy are idiots. The strategy does not meet customer needs, employee needs or shareholder needs. It is insensitive, stupid and a continuance of what everybody knows is not working.
Comment from a 30 year transportation veteran and innovator for the largest shippers and 3PLs.