Yellow trucking, with significant operations in Overland Park, is shutting down: union
One of the nation’s largest freight companies, which has a significant presence in Overland Park with hundreds of reported employees, is preparing to file for bankruptcy as it ceases operations, union officials say.
Yellow Corp. served legal notices Sunday to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents the company’s 22,000 unionized workers across the country, about its plan to file for bankruptcy.
“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,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry.”
The demise of Yellow, a less-than-truckload carrier formerly known as YRC, comes as customers flock to other companies amid financial difficulties and its battle with union leaders over unpaid benefits.
In a notice to employees, Yellow said it was “shutting down its regular operations” on Friday and laying off “employees at all of its locations,” according to The Wall Street Journal. CNN reported that Yellow plans to lay off “all 30,000 of its workers.”
As of last month, the company reported having 990 full-time equivalent employees locally, according to the Kansas City Business Journal, which maintains a list of private employers.
Yellow has not responded to The Star’s requests for comment since Friday. The company is expected to make an announcement Monday about the “the state of the company and the operation,” according to industry outlet FreightWaves.
For years, Yellow operated out of a 10-story tower at 10990 Roe Ave. in Overland Park. The 99-year-old company moved its headquarters last year to downtown Nashville, Tennessee, but committed to maintaining a sizable workforce in the Kansas City suburb and reportedly signed a 15-year lease on new offices at the former Sprint Campus in Overland Park.
In its annual 2022 report, Yellow said its Overland Park field resource center provided support to its operating companies that “spans a variety of functions, including sales and marketing, information technology, human resources, finance and accounting, legal, transportation management, revenue management, risk management, procurement and security.”
The news comes after years of financial troubles at Yellow. The New York Times recently reported that Yellow has “more than $1.5 billion in outstanding debt,” including a $700 million loan it received through a federal pandemic aid program.
That loan, a congressional probe recently determined, was the result of the federal Treasury and Defense Departments making “missteps” in deeming the company “as critical to maintaining national security.”
Weeks ago, Yellow tried to get a federal judge in Kansas City, Kansas, to stop unionized employees from striking over the missed health and pension payments. The judge rejected the request, saying she did not not have the authority to issue such an order.
At the time, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson wondered if the union won “a battle” in the labor disagreement but lost the war. A strike was ultimately averted after Central States funds extended the workers’ health care benefits.
The Teamsters said Sunday they plan to help affected workers “find good union jobs throughout freight and other industries.”
