LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Teamsters could soon strike against a national trucking company with some local implications.
Threats of a strike erupted after the Yellow Corporation, a freight and logistics company, stopped making payments to employee health insurance and pensions.
On Wednesday, a press release from the company stated, “…it is the Teamsters’ leadership that has failed the 22,000 Teamsters employed by Yellow as well as the 8,000 non-union employees who may soon become the Teamsters’ collateral damage. For many months, Teamsters’ leadership has steadily refused to negotiate the company’s long-planned and necessary modernization efforts that would enable Yellow, a 100-year-old company, to streamline and strengthen its operations to compete against non-union carriers.
The company is suing the union for alleged breach of contract and claims it cannot afford to make the payments.
According to the Teamsters, about 150 workers are employed at Yellow’s Jeffersonville operations.
“We depend on our healthcare insurance,” Chief Steward of Teamsters Local 89 Robert Parker said. “Some of us are older, we need it. Some of us are younger than kids. Everyone needs health insurance. We have a contract that’s supposed to be signed until the end of March 2024 for the company to pay that in.”
“Yellow has a responsibility and obligation to workers,” Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said in a press release Tuesday. “Our members should not suffer because of management’s incompetence and financial irresponsibility. This is a new low, even for a company as dysfunctional as Yellow.”
The union said the strike would happen Monday if payments to their benefits were not made by Sunday.
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