USF Red Star Shuts Down!

[blakjeezis]

Probably not many people are gonna care, but this is kinda huge. For those who don't know, Red Star is a large freight company, I'm sure you've seen their trucks on the highway. They're along the same lines as Roadway Express, New Penn Motors, etc. Today USF, the parent company, announced that they are ceasing all operations under the Red Star name. The Teamsters had a nationwide walkout on Friday, and the company decided that the losses caused by this were too big for the company to ever recover from, so they shut the doors.

This is gonna be a problem for a lot of people, not just the thousands of employees, but the customers, commercial, industrial and private as well. They happened to be a very big customer of mine, and one of my service guys was at the Newark - Delancey St. terminal this morning. Apparently the place is on lockdown, picketers out front, police barricades, the whole thing. I guess the Teamsters won the battle, but lost the war.

USF Red Star website (http://www.usfc.com)

That's the USFC website. The Teamsters' complaint and the corporate closure announcement are in pdf format if anyone wants to read them.

<IMG SRC =http://www.blakjeezis.homestead.com/files/bloodjeez.gif>
If I were any better, I'd have to be twins!!
<marquee><font color=red>INRI</font> White people are so scared of blakjeezis<font color=red> INRI</font></marquee>
I'm Rick James, bitch

This message was edited by blakjeezis on 5-24-04 @ 12:20 PM

[Mike Teacher]

The Teamsters had a nationwide walkout


Yer right i dont know the industry, but the above phrase means its gotta be huge. Thats never a good phrase.

<IMG SRC="http://members.aol.com/miketeachr/newsig">

[furie]

this is going to screwup the airlines too. Many of the IAC's in the area rely on Red Star.


<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/furie1335/.Pictures/rfsigs/furiefish.jpg" height=100 width=300">


This message was edited by furie on 5-27-04 @ 8:09 PM

[HBox]

It took this company two days (weekend days at that) to go under? I'm admittedly ignorant to this business, but this sounds like bull.

[DarkHippie]

The transport industry is in trouble right now because of the massive gas prices (you think it's been bad on us, imagine driving for a living). I'm just hypothesizing, but I bet that first the industry tried to compensate by cutting from the workers. This of course pissed off the teamsters, who walked out. Now there's no place to cut, and no way to increase profit.

<IMG SRC=http://home.comcast.net/~jamesgpatton/eo.jpg>
<marquee>"Last night I went running through the screen door of discretion, for I woke up from a nightmare that I could not stand to see. You were a-wandering out on the hills of Iowa and you were not thinking of me." Dar Williams "Traveling III (Iowa)"</marquee>

[HBox]

Ah, now I see on USF's website that they have 5 other trucking companies, and they will have people on staff to help Red Star's customers find new distributors. OK. I see now. Dump the company and workers that gave you trouble, move your customers to your other companies, hire new people at the same old wages at the other companies, and the problem is solved, with the added bonus of making the whole situation look like the Teamster's fault unless you're paying real close attention. This is one shrewd company. This is the chance you take when you walk out.

[irishkb]

holy shit.... i used to deal with a lot of red star drivers when i worked in a warehouse... man this is gonna fuck some shit up..... man oh man.....

<IMG SRC=http://irishkb.50megs.com/images/kg.jpg>

Thanks Fallon!
<marquee>let's go T-Wolves!! Denver done, Kings dethroned... Bring on the Lakers!!!! series 1-1