About 80 members of Teamsters Local 397 will be among union members nationwide who will vote on a 10 percent wage reduction as part of economic relief plan for YRC Worldwide Inc., a trucking company.Local 397 President Ronald Gibbs said union leadership is recommending approval of the plan because of the financial problems faced by YRC Worldwide during the current economic downtown.
The company has lost about 80 percent of its stock market value over the past year. As a result, banks have mandated virtually all of its assets be pledged to cover current debt. That means the company can't borrow more and could face a liquidity crisis in 2009, the union said.
About 40,000 Teamster members are employed at the affected YRC Worldwide units -- Yellow Transportation, Roadway, Holland and New Penn. About 80 truck drivers from Erie and Crawford counties are represented by Local 397.
If approved, the wage reductions will remain in effect until the current Teamsters contract expires in 2013.
In return for the wage concessions, Gibbs said Teamsters members will receive an equity stake in the company. Nonunion employees would receive the same or greater percent reduction in total compensation.
The estimated savings is $220 million to $250 million a year.
Ballots are now being mailed to union members and are to be counted on Dec. 30. The reductions are expected to go into effect Jan. 1.
5 comments:
how does President Hoffa see this as an equal for union & non-union workers. the union is being asked for this concession for 4years where the non union employees & mgmt is only being asked for 1yr w/only 10% for Jan-June & then only 5%for july-dec? 4 years concession is a long time w/cost of living going up as it has been - don't you think the company is using the recession as a means to get what they did not get when the contract was ratified in April
How can the Union even think that this is going to be approved.I cannot believe this would even be considered. Don't be railroaded into believing any of the lies we are being told by company.
Shame on the union for asking us to take a cut!We have a contract & we need to stick to it
Hoffa should demand that the merger between yellow and roadway terminals should be halted till the corporation is back on a solid footing. Yrc is going to use your money from the pay cut to slice the Teamsters throat. Not many companys have survived after the men have given money back to the companys.How many jobs are going to be destroyed? Vote no on the pay cut.
this is a repeat of last contract! 1st December after the last contract they reduced pension, this time its wages. the union an the company are working together to compress our wages and benefits. if you have 10+years before you retire you will never recieve more than the gov pension board will allow. the pension in its current form is pyrimid scheme that is doomed. so why not cut the pension and keep the wages so we can pay our "subprime" mortgage
This concession package will not work, there has never been a company that survived after being given wage concessions. If YRC is going to survive the mgmt at the top, that got us into this mess, needs to be replaced. If not all the concessions will just prolong the enevitable closure of the company. They also want 10% of our already earned vacation pay. Vote No
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