UPS Strike Averted
After breaking off union talks for nearly three weeks, UPS and Teamsters inked a five-year deal to keep Brown rolling. This occurred in late July 2023, which helped strengthen a weakened supply chain already stretched beyond capacity. Over 7,500 full-time jobs are projected with raises going to full- and part-time workers.
The agreement also included air conditioners to be installed in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans and package cars purchased after January 1, 2024. Carriers will get two fans and air induction vents installed in the cargo compartments to offset high temperatures. The contract will be submitted to 340,000 rank-and-file members for ratification. Voting is expected to conclude August 22.
Though the contract needs to be ratified with majority votes, both parties seem amenable to the deal struck on Tuesday, July 25. General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said he’s never seen such a national contract to “level the playing field,” and UPS CEO Carol B. Tomé called the contract a “win-win-win agreement” for all stakeholders.
Yellow Corp.
The biggest bankruptcy in U.S. trucking history is likely to be made in the coming days when the nation’s third-largest carrier, Yellow Corp., looks to file for bankruptcy. The company ceased all operations at noon on Sunday, July 30, and Teamsters leadership said it had been notified of a pending bankruptcy filing.
In 2003, Yellow acquired Roadway in a $1.1 billion deal, and then acquired USF for $1.47 billion in 2005. The goal was to rise near the top of the LTL space, allowing the company to leverage larger scale into greater operating and cost.
The company, with its balance sheet in the red, had become a holding company for several logistics brands operating in more than 72 countries around the world. In that year, it would see its revenue increase to nearly $10 billion, with earnings per share of roughly $5, or $277 million in net income. That increase would be the financial height of the company as the freight recession would take root that year, followed by a near collapse in financial markets two years later.
Show me the money
A controversial Treasury loan of $700M still could not piece Yellow back together—Yellow rifled through $700 million from a COVID-relief loan to help companies assuage lost revenue from stay-at-home and vaccination mandates.
Canadian Kerfuffle July 1—August. . . . ?
The Canadian British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and International Warehouse and Longshore Union (ILWU) recently reached an agreement to avert a strike. But like a good Canadian hockey game a fight broke out and the widely dispersed Canuk population no longer cheered. The dockworkers union strike concerning the container ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, Canada, was game on again.
The initial strike started July 1 and lasted almost two weeks before a tentative agreement was reached by way of a government mediator.
Vancouver and Prince Rupert are important to American supply chains because containers are brought there and shipped via rail to U.S. destinations.
Ship-position data showed six container ships waiting off Vancouver in mid-July, and no container vessels waiting off Prince Rupert, with seven more container ships set to arrive at the two ports in the coming days. Around a dozen container ships waited off both ports combined during the strike.
