Analyst Predicts Teamsters Will Approve Wage Cuts at YRC

Less-than-truckload company YRC Worldwide’s Teamsters-union employees voted Tuesday on whether to accept a 10% pay cut aimed at helping the carrier, and one analyst said he expects the union to approve the vote, Bloomberg reported.

Justin Yagerman, an analyst at Wachovia Capital Markets in New York, said in a research note Tuesday that he expected the union to approve the cuts, and raised his rating on the YRC to “market perform” from “underperform,” Bloomberg said.

The union’s final vote tally is likely to come in on Wednesday, according to a Teamsters spokesman, Bloomberg reported.

YRC’s stock price rose 21% in Nasdaq trading Tuesday on speculation that the union’s rank and file will approve the wage concessions, aimed at saving YRC as much as $250 million a year, Bloomberg said.

The carrier has about 40,000 Teamsters-represented workers, and it posted three quarterly losses in the quarters through the end of September as its freight demand slumped, Bloomberg reported.

YRC is ranked No. 4 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.