Yellow trucking company closes; hundreds out of jobs at Copley, Richfield facilities
Yellow trucking company closed and locked its doors Sunday afternoon, effectively putting about 30,000 employees out of work, including hundreds in Copley Township and Richfield Village.
A memo obtained by the Akron Beacon Journal that was apparently sent to managers instructed them to have any workers at their facilities "clock out and vacate the premises" at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, to lock the gates by noon and upload photos of the secured gates by 12:30 p.m.
Waiting for news: Yellow employees in Copley, Richfield await fate of struggling trucking company
On Sunday afternoon, a semitractor-trailer sitting parallel to the road blocked the entrance of YRC Freight’s Richfield location.
A laminated sign taped inside the gate said, “Dear valued customers and employees: All company operations have ceased as of Sunday, July 30, 2023, at 12:00 pm EDT.”
The sign directed union employees to contact their union representative and added a phone number for customer-related concerns.
The memo said Yellow Corp. executives would make a statement Monday on the state of the company.
The Teamsters union said it was notified Sunday that Yellow Corp. would be filing for bankruptcy and ceasing operations. The union estimates Yellow employs more than 600 people at its Summit County locations. In March, the company closed its site in Green, which employed 107 people.
Various media, including The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press, reported Friday that the Kansas-based company's declining financial outlook plus an ongoing battle with unions suggested that bankruptcy was inevitable.
Also on Friday, the co-chair of the Teamsters committee negotiating with the company sent a letter to members suggesting that the company would not survive.
"... We have no good news to report, and the likelihood that Yellow will survive is increasingly bleak," wrote John A. Murphy, co-chair of the negotiating committee. "Yellow continues to clear its system, and it appears to be laying off personnel and closing entire terminals across the country."
Murphy was hopeful to work with Yellow to resolve the company's "financial mess." By Sunday evening, though, the Teamsters announced on its website that it would shift focus to instead help its impacted members find "good union jobs in freight and other industries."
“Today’s news is unfortunate but not surprising," Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. "Yellow has historically proven that it could not manage itself despite billions of dollars in worker concessions and hundreds of millions in bailout funding from the federal government. This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry."
Yellow, which is the third-largest trucking company in the U.S., had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion as of March.
The company has been losing customers as news of its problems spread, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In a letter sent to non-union employees last week, Yellow said it would cease "normal operations" on Friday. FreightWaves, a freight market price reporting agency, reported that a Yellow senior vice president said in an online conference call Friday that a bankruptcy filing was expected Monday.
The memo to managers provided instructions on securing the company's properties. All doors were to be closed and locked. Fuel orders were already canceled. "Just have enough on hand," one of the bullet points read in the memo.
"Asset Managment will be handled over the next week(s)," the memo said.
Beacon Journal reporters Alan Ashworth and Doug Livingston and Associated Press reports contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Yellow trucking closes its doors in Copley, Richfield, nationwide
