One of the largest shipping companies in the country is at the negotiation table with the Teamsters, and hundreds of Michiana workers could be affected by what comes out of the talks.About 350 Michiana workers are employed by YRC Worldwide, which you likely know as the three shipping companies they own: Yellow Transportation, USF Holland, and Roadway.
YRC's CEO Bob Zollars says they're exploring their options with the teamsters, to see how they can help the company through this tough economic time.
“We approached the Teamsters in an effort to explore all available options under the National Master Freight Agreement to ensure competitiveness and preserve the benefits and jobs of our union employees,” Zollars said Tuesday, according to the Kansas City Star.
In a memo sent to local Teamster members yesterday, the organization says, "It is questionable if the company can generate enough money to prevent a prolonged downturn," as the struggling economy may affect their ability to borrow money to pay down debts.
The company is trying to re-negotiate the contract they signed 9 months ago, that gave workers a raise.
The teamsters say they're not negotiating the parts of their contract that include benefits; they're really only talking about the possibility of decreasing their pay.
Local teamsters say some sort of agreement is in everyone's best interest.
“We hope we can keep jobs we just want to come to work every day and take a paycheck so we can feed our families just like you and everybody else,” said Dennis Switzer, a Yellow employee who has worked at the terminal in South Bend for 13 years.
“We're in the middle of a recession. We're in the middle of a huge economic downturn and (YRC), like everyone else, is having some struggles. But they’re working through those struggles and they're going to be fine. They’re going to survive and be competitive,” said Bob Warnock III, President of the Local Teamsters #364.
Meanwhile, investment experts don't expect YRC to go out of business over the next few months.
But they do expect its stock to remain volatile, and it's dropped by about 80% over the last year.
These contract negotiations have been going on since Monday.
YRC is the second largest employer of Teamster employees in the country, and there are about 40,000 union employees nationwide at YRC.
YRC could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
6 comments:
Before I would ever consider a concession, I want to see these Big wig CEO'S at YRC take a big pay cut, at least half. How many times must the employees bail out these guys because they bit off more than they could chew. buying up the competition and running them into the ground. I'm a laid off employee at Holland, a company that always made money until Yellow purchased them. So you tell them TO GO the Gov. for a bail out just like these big banks and the auto makers. and then maybe talk or just fold up like you did with Preston Truck Lines
zollers must resign as ceo of yekkow before we will consider a cut in pay. folowintg zollers foolish path would be like electing george bush for a third term. who else but zollers can destroy 3 good companies? UNTIL ZOLLERS LEAVES-NO CONSEESSIONS!
roadway stood alone and was just fine until this yellow (YRC) came a lone .. so they need to find away to get help. so start with the CEO and work down to managent to supervisor pay cut.. not the union workers............
The locals need to stand up for the employees instead of jumping in bed with the company. Who is fighting for the hourly worker? There are nearly 200 hourly Yellow employees laid off in Chicago and 80 Roadway employees. If the concession is approved, will there be a deal to keep all full time employees without lay offs every Friday? What incentive is there to pass the concession if you cannot promise all of us that go to work that we'll have a job tomorrow?
Start with cutting Bill Zollar's salary in half and work their way down. These corporate executives are paid too much - we shouldn't have to cut our pay just to get them out trouble for mistakes that they made!
how about using the money,the 10%, to buy the company. employee owned?
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