Yellow, the third-largest less-than-truckload company that’s within the midst of economic chaos, is shedding an unknown variety of office employees, most of which were nonunion.
Employees were notified of the layoffs on Friday morning in voice-only calls. At the very least three executives laid off large portions of their teams:
- Yellow Chief Information Officer Annlea Rumfola informed her team of some 300 technology employees that Friday was their last day, in accordance with an worker on the decision.
- Steve Selvig, vp of customer care at Yellow, informed an unknown variety of customer support employees that Friday was their last day, in accordance with an worker on the decision and an area news publication.
- Yellow Chief Business Officer Jason Bergman invited the next teams to a call that said Friday was their last day: local sales divisions 1, 2 and 4; all inside sales; multiple regions of corporate sales; exhibit operations managers; and Yellow third-party logistics sales. This got here from two employees on the decision. FreightWaves reviewed screenshots of emails sent before and a recording of the decision. A Yellow representative told FreightWaves after publication that not all teams invited were laid off.
These layoffs come ahead of a possible Yellow bankruptcy filing. A senior vp said Yellow is predicted to file for bankruptcy on July 31, in accordance with three employees who attended an internal call wherein the chief shared this news.
Terminated employees were instructed to receive information regarding their severance pay, healthcare, W-2s, and other key documents through an Oracle platform, as their access to company systems might be terminated on Friday. Based on a memo distributed to terminated employees viewed by FreightWaves, severance for nonunion staff depends upon title and length of tenure at the corporate:
It’s unclear why the Yellow third-party logistics sales team was invited to the layoff call, as the corporate is actively in search of to sell its logistics arm. A Yellow representative said in an emailed statement after the story was published that the Yellow Logistics organization has remained intact, including the Yellow Logistics salesforce.
A Yellow representative said in an emailed statement to FreightWaves after the story was published that customers can contact Yellow’s support line at 800-610-6500 or customer.care@myyellow.com.
“Yellow has retained a strong customer support team that’s fully able to handling inquiries and assisting with all support that customers might need,” the representative said.
Yellow, a 99-year-old company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, employs some 30,000 staff. About 22,000 of them are represented by the Teamsters union. Teamsters and Yellow have been locked in a monthslong strife over changing key work rules on the trucking fleet. Now, sources say Yellow may file for bankruptcy imminently.
In a call to Yellow sales teams, Bergman shared an announcement on the corporate’s potential shuttering — and pinned the blame on the Teamsters’ refusal to barter with the corporate:
“Since last January, now we have made every try and meet with the IBT. The IBT’S refusal to barter for nine months, its freezing of our essential marketing strategy, One Yellow and, finally, its strike authorizations caused customers to seek out alternative freight carriers and it’s had a catastrophic effect on our business. When IBT leaders were finally ready to fulfill this week, it was too late. By then, the IBT strike threat had already a devastating impact on our business, [unclear] investors and causing customers to quickly depart. Given this impact to our business, we’re forced to announce additional headcount reductions of non-union employees.”
In a memo published to members Thursday night, Teamsters blamed Yellow’s management for the corporate’s financial issues:
“Within the meantime, TNFINC and the IBT proceed to attempt to work with the Government to find out whether there may be a solution to protect the Teamster families at Yellow. TNFINC and the IBT remain willing to work with Yellow and its lenders or potential lenders. Hope, nevertheless, is fading. Unfortunately, despite greater than a decade of concessions totaling billions of dollars given to the Company by Teamster members in addition to a large government bailout loan in 2020, Yellow may finally be succumbing to its enormous debt burden.”
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