Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024:
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters won a major victory against now-defucnt Yellow Corporation on Monday with the dismissal of the company’s $137 million lawsuit by U.S. District Court Judge Julie A. Robinson.
The lawsuit, Yellow Corporation et al., v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters et al., was filed at the end of June before Yellow filed for bankruptcy in August. Yellow alleged that the labor union breached a binding contract with Yellow and caused more than $137 million in damages by "unjustifiably blocking, for over eight months, Yellow’s restructuring plan to modernize its business, which is necessary to compete against non-union carriers that dominate the LTL business today."
At the time, Yellow was in the second phase of its One Yellow strategy to improve efficiency, speed, choice and value for its customers. Phases 2 and 3 of One Yellow, which included aligning operations in the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and Central regions, were set to take place last year. Phase 1, integrating the linehaul networks of YRC Freight and Reddaway in the Western region to support both regional and long-haul services, was completed in 2022 with union approval and under the collective bargaining agreement, Yellow charged that the union was not permitted to impede its restructuring.
The union called the lawsuit “a blatant attempt by Yellow Corp. to undermine the rights of workers and discredit the Teamsters.”
U.S. District Court Judge Julie A. Robinson, who ruled in the case, said that Yellow “failed to exhaust the grievance process under the terms of the [National Master Freight Agreement] before bringing their [Labor Management Relations Act] claims in this case."
[Related: Yellow files $137 million lawsuit against Teamsters union]
