YRC, Teamsters to Discuss Operations Changes

New talks could encompass truck terminals, freight handling procedures

YRC, looking to restructure its operations as the trucking operator seeks to rebuild its finances, is preparing for talks with the Teamsters union on a redesign of its freight terminal network and how its union employees handle shipments.

The redesign is the next step in a restructuring at the nation’s third-largest less-than-truckload carrier started last year by new YRC President Jeff Rogers. It’s part of a broader overhaul of the YRC Worldwide business that’s taken place since a financial rescue that included critical concessions from the Teamsters.

YRC managers will meet with union officials after completing a review of the troubled carrier’s network, Rogers said in an interview Friday.

“We’ve got meetings set up already,” he said. “I sat down with Tyson (Johnson) within my first couple of weeks as president and told him it would be coming.”

YRC Worldwide named Rogers president of its core long-haul LTL subsidiary last September after completing a $500 million financial restructuring. Johnson is the Teamsters National Freight Director and an international vice president.

The long-haul LTL operator lost more than $1.6 billion as its parent company’s revenue tumbled from nearly $10 billion in 2006 to $4.3 billion in 2010.

YRC this week said it would close the former Roadway general headquarters in Akron, Ohio, eliminating 50 to 100 jobs and transferring others.

YRC Worldwide merged Roadway with Yellow Transportation in 2009, six years after Yellow bought Roadway for $1.1 billion. “We’re moving forward as YRC, not Yellow, not Roadway,” Rogers said. “Those companies don’t exist anymore. One of the biggest tasks ahead for me is to bring the Yellow and Roadway folks together.”

The company is considering whether further consolidation is needed, but Rogers said he wants to eliminate some freight handling.

“We need to look at the way we’re moving freight through distribution centers,” Rogers said. That could require Teamster approval for a change of operations.  Full Story........

YRC to sell Roadway headquarters, cut as many as 100 Akron jobs and relocate others

Trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc. said Thursday it is selling the former Roadway headquarters in Akron to the developer of the Goodyear headquarters and expects up to 100 people will be losing their jobs in upcoming months.

About 100 other YRC Worldwide employees will transfer to office space at company truck terminals in nearby Copley and Richfield, with another 50 offered to relocate to jobs in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa. The company said as many as 50 to 100 Akron jobs will be eliminated at the end of March, depending on which employees accept relocation. The YRC employees who lose their jobs will get severance packages.

“It really comes down to an economics issue,” said Jeff Rogers, the new president of YRC. “We’re still losing money.”

Rogers, who visited Akron on Thursday to announce the decision in person to employees, said the company will have about 4,000 employees in Ohio after the former Roadway headquarters is sold. Rogers also was meeting Thursday afternoon with Akron and Summit County public officials to explain the company’s decision, saying he owed it to the community given Roadway’s lengthy history in Akron.  Full Story........