Yellow Corporation: On the Verge of Bankruptcy

Yellow Corporation, one of the country’s oldest and largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, was nearing its 100th anniversary in 2024. Whether it would reach that milestone, however, was uncertain as the company was attempting to restructure its operations to become more competitive and refinance $1.3 billion of debt that was coming due in the next year. With just $100 million of cash on its balance sheet in June 2023, some kind of financial restructuring was needed to keep the company afloat. Unfortunately, the company’s relationship with the Teamsters, the union that represented two-thirds of its 30,000 workers, was deteriorating rapidly. The situation became even worse after Yellow skipped a $50 million payment for worker benefits and pension obligations on July 15, prompting the Teamsters to threaten a strike at the end of the month. Having helped save the company from three “near death” experiences in the past 15 years, the union was in no mood to make further concessions. For Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins, the questions were whether and how he could convince union members to make further concessions, and what changes he needed to make to avoid bankruptcy one more time.