Yellow Corporation is a giant transportation holding company responsible for shipping goods to major retailers like Walmart and Home Depot. The company was given a $700 million pandemic relief loan in 2020 but continued to ask for worker givebacks anyway. Eventually, the Teamsters-represented workers demanded Yellow pay back the more than $50 million it owed them in benefits and pensions, and threatened to strike if it couldn’t.
While those numbers are definitely shocking on a macroeconomic level, a recent viral video from a Yellow warehouse worker illustrates their personal impact, too. Posted to TikTok, the clip shows a driver yelling at his supervisor, with all of his co-workers behind him. “Nobody here tell me about how I get emotional,” he explained. “I’ve been here 30 some motherfucking years, and you’re telling me I ain’t got no motherfucking pension.”
@doneright40 This is what happens when you tell a driver that has been working for yellow freight for over 30 years that they are no longer going to have a pension.#yellowfreight #teamstars ♬ original sound - Francky
Today could be the last day Yellow stays in operation. Here’s what the drivers are saying. pic.twitter.com/rT02SlkY1a
— WHAT THE TRUCK?!? (@FWwhatthetruck) July 21, 2023
“50 years old and nearing retirement,” commenter t jone commiserated. “I feel his pain.”
Yellow is $1.2 billion in debt, and seems set to fail as its business keeps waning — pandemic or no pandemic. “This deadbeat company has only itself to blame for being in this embarrassing position,” new Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said in a statement.
Fortunately, since the viral video, Yellow has agreed to pay its employees the $50 million it owes them within the next 30 days. So this story has a happy ending — for now. Because it’s not as though Yellow’s word, like the company itself, is worth much these days.
Here’s the real story. pic.twitter.com/e50UURZ6iB
— Buzz Lightyear (@BigKidDinner) July 21, 2023
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