Yellow Hit With More Mass-Layoff Notice Claims After Bankruptcy

Yellow Corp. faces new allegations that the mass layoff it undertook before filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition violated Illinois notice requirements as well as federal employment law.

The trucking giant and its subsidiaries terminated approximately 30,000 workers without providing the 60 days of advance notice required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or a similar Illinois law, according to the complaint filed Monday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The new suit’s federal WARN Act allegations echo those included in a complaint filed against Yellow and subsidiaries YRC Inc., USF Holland LLC, New Penn Motor Express LLC, and USF Reddaway Inc. last week. Yellow didn’t immediately respond to a Tuesday request for comment on the latest claims.

Yellow filed for bankruptcy Aug. 6 and on Monday announced plans to sell its warehouses and trucks in order to repay creditors, including a pandemic-era loan of more than $700 million from the federal government.

The company blamed the International Brotherhood of Teamsters—the representative for more than two thirds of the terminated Yellow employees—for the bankruptcy. The union vehemently denied that it’s at fault and said workers “sacrificed billions” to keep the company afloat in the face of a “dysfunctional, greedy C-suite.”

Roger Keef worked for Yellow in Illinois for nearly 30 years until losing his job as part of a mass layoff July 30, according to his would-be class suit. More than 100 other former Yellow employees have also reached out to Sauder Schelkopf, one of the firms representing Keef, the complaint says.

Keef says he learned through social media that July 30 would be his last day with Yellow. The company didn’t give him any written notice of his impending termination before that day, the suit says.

Approximately 400 other Yellow employees who worked at the same Chicago facility as Keef lost their jobs at the same time, also without the required 60-day notice, according to the complaint.

Wilmington, Del.-based Connor Bifferato also represents Keef.

Another group of former Yellow workers filed their own proposed class action the same day as Keef in the same court. Their suit alleges violations of the federal WARN Act only.

Margolis Edelstein, Gardner Firm PC, Lankenau & Miller LLP, and the NLG Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice represent the workers in the second Monday suit.

The case is Keef v. Yellow Corp., Bankr. D. Del., No. 1:23-ap-50458, complaint filed 8/7/23.