November 16, 2009: YRC will consolidate road and breakbulk operations in the Cleveland-Akron area. The company wants to close the Richfield Ohio breakbulk and move road and dock operations to the former Roadway terminal in Copley, Ohio.

The move affects some 1,000 Teamsters at three terminals; over 400 of them are presently laid off.

Members are concerned about seniority issues, bidding procedures, work rule changes, job qualifications, and other issues. The time for members’ voice to be heard is now, leading up to a December hearing where the issues will likely be settled.

This change ends almost 10 years (RFO-257 opened in March of 2000) of the "One Roof Agreement" which protected a lot of jobs at Yellow, and settled a jurisdictional dispute between Local 24 and Local 407. Let's hope that the Local 24, Local 964 and Local 407 officials and the IBT save as many jobs as they can and protect Teamster seniority as YRC downsizes from 3 to 2 barns in northeast Ohio.

The company proposal is available here.

Read more analysis of the closing here.