YRC Worldwide Reaches Tentative Agreement With Teamsters Union

(RTTNews) - Transportation company YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) announced on Friday that it has reached a tentative agreement with officials of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on an extension of its collective bargaining agreement to March 2019.

The company said that the tentative agreement contains a number of revisions to the company's previous proposal which address concerns raised by the Teamsters leadership and its members.

The previous proposal, which was voted without reaching an agreement with the union was not ratified by the company's employees. In contrast, this MOU extension was negotiated with the union.

"The outcome of this week's discussions is critical to the future of the company. The MOU extension is something our employees can have confidence is the best - and only remaining - path forward," said James Welch, chief executive officer of YRC Worldwide.

The company noted that details of the revised proposal will be reviewed by local union officials at a "two-person" meeting of local union officials to be held on Tuesday, January 21, 2014.

Teamsters Union also confirmed on Friday that it reached a tentative agreement with YRC Worldwide that, if ratified by the membership, will provide a pathway for substantial debt reduction and refinancing initiatives that will permit the company to protect and preserve more than 30,000 good American jobs.

"We recognize that YRC will have to go back to the financial market to obtain financing that will permit it to operate and grow its business, but the market needs to understand that YRC's front line workers are the lifeblood of the company and, while willing to play a role, will not shoulder the entire burden," said Tyson Johnson, Director of the Teamsters National Freight Division and Co-Chairman of TNFINC or Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee.

On 9th January, Teamsters Union had announced that an initial company proposal was rejected by over 19,000 Teamster members who voted over several weeks.

YRCW closed Friday's trading at $15.82, up $0.35 or 2.26%. The stock, further, gained $2.98 or 18.84% in after hours trade.