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YRC-Teamsters contract takes effect after last supplemental agreement ratified

Back to work...fully

The five-year collective bargaining agreement between the Teamsters union and three units of less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW) took effect after western Pennsylvania workers ratified the last of the local supplements and riders, the company and the union said today.

Under the Teamsters constitution, no national or master contract can be implemented until all supplements and riders attached to the national compact are ratified. On May 3, the master contract was ratified by a 3,600-vote margin, and 26 of the 27 supplements and riders were also approved. However, members of Joint Council 40 rejected their supplement during the first voting cycle. On the second pass, though, workers approved the supplement by a 92-41 vote.

The five-year contract, which is retroactive to April 1, 2019, covers about 24,000 workers at YRC’s YRC Freight long-haul unit and its Holland and New Penn regional units. The contract provides for an 18 percent aggregate wage increase starting April 1 and running through the end of 2023, a restoration of one week’s paid vacation, and higher levels of health and welfare contributions. For the first time, Holland will be able to purchase transportation services outside of the unionized pool, but only up to the equivalent of 8 percent of annual miles driven.

In addition, the contract calls for more smaller box trucks to be operated by union members instead of relying on third-party carriers to deliver freight.


Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.