Georgians feeling the pain after trucking giant Yellow shutters operations
Yellow Trucking Company shuts doors nationwide
National trucking giant Yellow Corporation may file for bankruptcy any day now, leaving 30,000 employees without a job after it closed its doors nationwide Monday. Some of those jobs were here in metro Atlanta. FOX 5 learned more about the facility in Conley and how the closures affect Georgia.
CONLEY, Ga. - As it was going on its 100th year, Yellow Trucking abruptly ceased its operations this week, leaving 30,000 employees without a job. This includes people in metro Atlanta.
"I gave them 21 years. I started in June of 2002 and I got nothing," said Deanna Nettles, a general clerk for the company at its Conley office.
Nettles says her steady employment with the company came to an abrupt halt when she received a call over the weekend from her manager saying she should not come to work on Monday. "Exact words were, ‘We have ceased operations and no need to report for your 6 a.m. shift tomorrow.'"
As of Wednesday afternoon, a note sat by the gate reading: "All company operations have ceased."
Nettles says besides that phone call Sunday, she has only received information through social media and through the Teamsters Union, which represents about 22,000 of the company's 30,000 employees nationwide.
"We weren't given any information, so I'm very angry that it came to this," said Nettles. "It's really upsetting to know that you put that much time into something and that nobody cared."
The company began laying off its employees over the weekend following financial woes from debt.
"Yellow had some unique issues that not all transportation companies face," said Seth Millican, Executive Director of the Georgia Transportation Alliance. "The freight and logistics industry generally is a tough and risky business to be in these days."
As for Nettles, she says the local chapter for Teamsters has been helpful, but she's now in a position she never expected to be in. "Now, I'm out there beating the door like everybody else and I have no skill except freight."
Yellow would not provide FOX 5 with any comment or statement at this time.