The Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee announced today that it has granted YRC Worldwide Inc. a conditional extension until March 15, 2011 on key timelines to achieve elements of its comprehensive restructuring plan. Other key stakeholders at YRCW including the lending group and pension funds, also granted similar extensions. The agreement was reached late on December 31."Unfortunately with the economy and the freight industry still struggling and the company's lenders hesitant to make any significant concessions given the financial and legal uncertainties created by ABF's lawsuit, YRCW ran out of time in 2010 to complete any of the significant restructuring elements," said Teamsters National Freight Division Director Tyson Johnson. "We pushed the envelope to keep people working to find a solution but given what transpired since October 30 we thought it in our members' best interests to grant some additional time."
In the restructuring plan that was negotiated in September and ratified by Teamster YRCW members in a national mail ballot referendum on October 30, 2010, the company committed to attracting an equity investment and reducing its debt by December 31, 2010.
"Our 25,000 members at YRCW should know that we extended the timelines only after getting strong commitments from YRCW management to redouble its efforts regarding debt reduction and raising new equity and agreement from the lenders to continue deferring payments during the extension period," Johnson said. "Our number one goal remains to achieve a restructuring at YRCW that creates a viable entity that continues to provide good jobs and benefits and we will continue that efforts into 2011."
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