Days Before Christmas, Universal Logistics Lays Off 70 Port Drivers
Citing a weak freight market, logistics company Universal Logistics Holdings (NASDAQ: ULH ) has laid off up to 70 employee port and intermodal drivers at three subsidiaries – Universal Intermodal Services, Universal Truckload Services and Roadrunner Intermodal Services. The layoffs, which occurred last week, have impacted employees working at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. They took place less than one month after 28 employee drivers at Universal Intermodal voted to join Long Beach-based Teamsters Local 848 . All of those drivers have now been laid off. Several drivers have claimed they were told they could come back to work as independent contractors if they purchased their own trucks. Desmond Gibson, one of the former Roadrunner drivers, told FreightWaves he was called into the Fontana, California, facility on Dec. 18 along with at least five other drivers. The operations manager handed the drivers a letter and told them that "he was sorry," Gibson said. "He said, ‘If you ever got your own truck, we'd be more than glad to work with you.
Days Before Christmas, Universal Logistics Lays Off 70 Port Drivers
Citing a weak freight market, logistics company Universal Logistics Holdings (NASDAQ: ULH ) has laid off up to 70 employee port and intermodal drivers at three subsidiaries – Universal Intermodal Services, Universal Truckload Services and Roadrunner Intermodal Services. The layoffs, which occurred last week, have impacted employees working at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. They took place less than one month after 28 employee drivers at Universal Intermodal voted to join Long Beach-based Teamsters Local 848 . All of those drivers have now been laid off. Several drivers have claimed they were told they could come back to work as independent contractors if they purchased their own trucks. Desmond Gibson, one of the former Roadrunner drivers, told FreightWaves he was called into the Fontana, California, facility on Dec. 18 along with at least five other drivers. The operations manager handed the drivers a letter and told them that "he was sorry," Gibson said. "He said, ‘If you ever got your own truck, we'd be more than glad to work with you.