Debt-laden Yellow Corp files for bankruptcy after prolonged labor row

Money-strapped Yellow Corp (NASDAQ:YELL) has filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety, which was broadly anticipated because the trucking firm struggled to deal with its outsized debt load, which pressured it to overlook union funds. Its shares sank 24.6% earlier than the bell on Monday.

The corporate expects to enter right into a debtor-in-possession financing facility, which can be used to assist the companies all through the sale course of, together with fee of sure prepetition wages.

Yellow (YELL) had belongings and liabilities of ~$1B-$10B, chapter submitting confirmed. It has greater than 100K collectors, the most important of which embody BNSF Railway, Amazon (AMZN), House Depot (HD) and Union Pacific’s (UNP) railroad unit.

Yellow (YELL) had been struggling to remain afloat amid weakening transport demand regardless of prior union concessions and a $700M COVID-era authorities bailout.

The corporate has been implementing a restructuring plan to modernize operations, which turned out to be the ultimate nail within the coffin amid opposition from Teamsters Union.

The dispute led to prospects abandoning Yellow (YELL) and shifting their cargoes to rivals. This pushed the corporate to close down operations final month and lay off 30K employees.

Yellow (YELL) positioned the blame squarely on Teamsters, saying the union drove the corporate out of enterprise. “We confronted 9 months of union bullying and intentionally damaging ways,” mentioned CEO Darren Hawkins.

Yellow (YELL) mentioned by summer time, its losses from Teamsters delaying its restructuring plan reached over $137M in adjusted EBITDA. It then sued the union for breach of contract and lack of enterprise worth, saying damages have grown since.

Teamsters disagreed, saying: “Our members’ lack of work at Yellow (YELL) was no fault of their very own. In truth, they gave billions again to this dysfunctional freight firm for many years.”

Whereas the corporate has failed, retail buyers have been racking up earnings in an old style meme-stock rally. Yellow (YELL) inventory has seen an over fourfold enhance in its worth within the final month alone, climbing 402.8% because it shuttered operations.

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