It fell on seemingly unconcerned ears but I've told my direct work group at YRC on several occasions going back many years that if for some reason a major economic downturn were to occur we would be in big trouble. When a company carries this kind of debt the margin for error is very slim. The Teamster bear some responsibility for not making debt reduction an element of past negotiations. It's hard to understand many employed at YRC from all work groups that have an optimistic view of the path forward. I'd love to see this survive also but it is impossible for me to see a positive here other than the union allowing healthcare fund payment deferrals and that the lenders may be beyond flexible since failure will hurt them as well. If commercial property resale values were not set to take such a near term beating then lenders would have more options.
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Jamie clearly said on the last quarterly call that being able to right size was important. While that is obviously a well perceived statement, it is easier said than done partly because the union leadership at almost every facility and local fights to keep layoffs at bay. Facility and other upper tier managers are competitive and also do their best to keep a name sake or more efficient facility running as many bills as possible even if it takes work away from another location. Some locations have a large number of casuals that can be left off the schedule to try to compensate however they hate to do this because it can be difficult to bring them back or train new employees when business returns. Most any facility manager would tell you they are doing OK at this time even though they are having to regularly offer guys to stay home ( buy YRC still pays their health and welfare for the day) This is only an example of how it seems you get a lot of push back on layoffs and it's probably much more complicated but for whatever reason in practice it is very challenging to right size.
What are they doing? They can’t sustain they way things are. Another “restructure” or a massive layoff? I’m surprised they didn’t lay off more than they did...