YRC Teamsters to Vote on 5-Year Contract Extension
The Teamsters union’s local leaders voted to allow rank-and-file members at less-than-truckload carrier YRC Worldwide Inc. to decide whether to extend their current labor agreement by four years from its scheduled expiration, through 2019.
YRC said the extension, as well as additional flexibilities the carrier is seeking from union members, “will enable the company to more effectively compete and serve customers in the North American [less-than-truckload] market.
Under the proposal, the agreement, which was set to end in March 2015, would be extended through March 2019.
“The Teamsters union was founded on democratic principles and we firmly believe that our members should have the right to decide how to respond to the company’s proposal,” Tyson Johnson, director of the Teamsters National Freight Division and co-chairman of the Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee, said in a statement after the Dec. 6 vote among union leaders.
Teamster leaders said they declined to recommend that members approve or deny YRC’s request because employees have already made “enormous sacrifices” to keep YRC in business.
Ballots are scheduled to be mailed out around Dec. 10 and counted around Jan. 8, the Teamsters said.
YRC said it would immediately begin meeting with employees about the company’s proposal.
