If you’ll remember from the UPS saga, Yellow was the smallish partial-load trucking company that the Teamsters were using to flex their muscle in an effort to impress UPS with the seriousness of their demands, as well as their willingness to play hardball.

…But the numbers suggest the company’s bankruptcy fears are real. Meanwhile, evidence is growing that O’Brien is using Yellow as a proxy in his war with a bigger, more lucrative foe, UPS. If he can prove to UPS he is willing to play hardball with Yellow — even killing the company — UPS might cave and agree to union demands on salary and more, industry observers say. A work stoppage won’t put UPS out of business, but the threat of a long strike from a proven, determined enemy would certainly be bad for business given the uncertain economy

The Teamsters could care less about the 22,000 dues paying members employed by Yellow if destroying that company – which kept insisting it was on the verge of bankruptcy – meant UPS got the flash notice that they meant business.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien scored himself a big win yesterday when he nailed everything and more he wanted from a chastened UPS board. They just weren’t up for any more negotiating or what a strike would mean, but he dang near stepped on himself with his members at Yellow in the interim.

Strapped for cash and trying to keep what freight they had already in transit moving, Yellow missed a $50M benefits contribution payment last week and spun the Teamsters off into a fit. They called a strike.

In turn, the Central States Funds canceled the Yellow employees’ pensions, which then sent those folks – some of them loyal dues paying Teamsters for decades – into furious, panic-stricken tirades against both the company and the union.

(NSFW)

Yellow freight worker finds out he no longer has a pension after working for 30 years pic.twitter.com/82ld9CUw4d

— Fight Videos (@FightVideosTV) July 23, 2023

O’Brien swung quickly back into action. The possibility of having disgruntled, abandoned Yellow employees rocking the boat and blaming Teamsters leadership just as he was about to knock off the biggest prize of his tenure as president so far simply couldn’t be allowed to happen. No one needed those visuals. So the Teamsters magnanimously allowed a 30 day grace period for Yellow to make the missed payments, and pressured Central States Funds to reinstate the Yellow employees’ pensions.

It was all CYA magic.

The O’Brien pulled off the UPS deal yesterday morning, and little Yellow and its 22, 000 workers are going to become a war casualty. A sidenote on the road to victory for the Teamsters president’s march to glory.

This morning, there were mixed signals coming out of Yellow’s headquarters – at first a bankruptcy warning and then an afternoon, “Well, not so fast.”

Yellow’s senior vice president of sales informed her staff on Wednesday that their last day would be Friday and the less-than-truckload carrier will file bankruptcy on Monday, according to three employees who attended the video call.

Yellow is the third-largest LTL company and employs some 30,000 workers, including around 22,000 Teamsters members. The trucking company had an operating revenue of $5.245 billion in 2022.

The sales employees were approved to tell customers of the bankruptcy plans and to take paid time off for the rest of the week.

In a meeting later Wednesday, according to a video of the meeting viewed by FreightWaves and two employees present, the senior vice president told employees to backtrack on the bankruptcy statement. She said to “correct” any customers that were previously told there would be a bankruptcy and to share the following statement:

“Yellow’s talks with the IBT are ongoing. As previously stated, and in keeping with fiduciary responsibility of the company’s executives, the company continues to prepare for a range of contingencies.”

Their drivers are parking the firm’s trucks.

Exactly what their drivers are being told this morning. https://t.co/Zk3priJlMo pic.twitter.com/bCIklg796o

— Justin Martin (@supertrucker) July 26, 2023

Volume had fallen off a cliff and the Teamsters were the shiv to end it all.

In a bank run customers flock to withdrawal savings, in a freight run customers flock to withdraw load tenders, I’m on the fence on Teamsters negotiating strategy with Yellow unless they felt the company couldn’t be saved and needed theatrics for the UPS deal

— Thomas Wasson (@ThomasWasson7) July 26, 2023

Oh, they engineered the theatrics. And couldn’t care less now that they have that UPS golden Apple.

Sorry about that.

There is no rescue package coming from Yellow.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration provided a $36B rescue package to solidify their pension plan, which is what the Teamsters really cared about.

The Teamsters have moved on. Its done. pic.twitter.com/urSvBrIZHo

— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️ (@FreightAlley) July 20, 2023

The Teamsters are still claiming to be “acting in good faith” even as they pressure the dying company to accept the previous “bottom line” union contract offer. It’s all smoke and mirrors so they can tell their unemployed, unpensioned members who formerly worked at Yellow that they fought the good fight for them.

…A Tuesday letter from Teamsters leadership to local unions representing all of Yellow Corp.’s network said emergency negotiations that began on Sunday haven’t yielded an agreement. The union says its “bottom-line proposal” seeks the $11-per-hour wages and benefits hike previously offered by the company.

Somehow the taxpayer is on the hook for this debacle, too, as we own 30% of the company thanks to a Trump era COVID bailout. Cash injection exchanged for a part interest in the firm – oh, that was well spent. Shame there was no Lee Iaccoca running this money sink.

A beleaguered trucking business that received a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the federal government may be forced to file for bankruptcy protection this summer amid a dispute with its union, a development that could leave American taxpayers stuck with a failed company.

The financial woes at the business, Yellow, which previously went by the name YRC Worldwide, have been building for years. The company lost more than $100 million in 2019 and has more than $1.5 billion in outstanding debt, including the government loan. In 2022, YRC, which ships meal kits, protective equipment and other supplies to military bases, agreed to pay $6.85 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of defrauding the Defense Department.

Disillusioned Teamsters aren’t quite as numerous as those employees pissed off at management but they are starting to pipe up.

…A worker from Alabama, writing before the Sunday agreement, said he believed the Teamsters were prepared to sanction massive job cuts. “It is hard to think that both the company and the union are willing to let 22,000 people be put out of work. That’s 22,000 families that will be affected by this. The union is saying that they want Yellow to just disappear. That is people who will be out of work, while the fat cat union bosses still get their paychecks. Unbelievable.”

Pretty much how it works, little man. I don’t know why anyone ever thinks it can’t happen to them.