Dive Brief:
- Yellow Corp. plans to close a pair of its smaller, end-of-line, New Penn and Holland terminals in Erie County, New York, this spring as part of its One Yellow network overhaul.
- A combined 120 employees work at the two facilities, which are expected to close around May 28, with relocations or separations effective within the following 14 days, according to a WARN notice.
- Many of the employees will be offered transfers to a larger regional distribution center in the area, and Buffalo will remain an important hub for Yellow, spokesperson Heather Nauert said in an email.
Dive Insight:
Yellow shared its plans for the New York terminal closures with employees in 2022, but the company also sent WARN notices “out of an abundance of caution,” Nauert said.
The terminal closures are part of the LTL carrier’s One Yellow network transformation, which includes selling 28 terminals and relocating employees in a bid to eliminate overlap and combine its operating businesses into a single super-regional carrier.
In a resubmitted, 149-page One Yellow proposal to the Teamsters, Yellow said the reorganization would primarily relocate employees within a jurisdiction of the same union local, and it would result in a net gain to overall employee headcount.
But the carrier, whose workforce is 82% unionized, will face off with the union over several provisions of the proposal, which the Teamsters said “fails to address serious concerns raised by the union.”
The Teamsters are demanding that established work standards and contractual protections be maintained, that primary lanes be preserved and traditional road driver classifications and dockworkers be protected, the union said in its response to the resubmitted proposal.
“The Teamsters oppose any change of operations written in vague language or drafted to erode contractual standards and practices,” Teamsters National Freight Director John Murphy said in a statement. “Yellow will not be allowed to disrupt and upend our members’ lives.”
