YRC APPLIES FOR TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM MONEY

MILE MARKER #56

YRC Worlwide is seeking $1 billion in federal bailout money to help relieve the obligations for pensions. Experts in the industry say that the company's odds of actually getting TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program Money) are slim to none. The move comes as the trucking heavyweight struggles to shore up its finances. The company's ability to make it through the recession will have significant implications for the trucking industry and large customers across the nation.

YRC owns a 20% share of the national market in the less-than-a-truckload industry. LTL is trucking companies who combine multiple customers' loads into a single truck. The bailout request comes at a time when YRC is taking steps to cut costs and raise cash.

YRC's Chief Executive William Zollars thinks that the company shouldn't be forced to pay the pensions of employees who never worked at YRC. Zollars says that the company is making really good progress on its financial recovery plan and thinks that YRC shouldn't have to carry this extra burden. Even if denied the TARP funds, it's a way to get the dialogue started about the pension issue.

UNIONS AND THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT (EFCA)

MILE MARKER #55

For those who wish the Unions would disappear, sorry, even in this economy Unions grew with 43,ooo additional members in 2008 across the country. Even if you are Union or not, Unions are good for everybody that's trying to make a living. Unions set the standard pay for various fields in the work force. One example is - LTL trucking. Why do you think company drivers for Conway,Estes, and FedEx are making the hourly rate that they are? They can thank the Union trucking companies.

The Unions organized the new 43,000 members without the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) despite the best efforts of former president Bush and the most anti-union administration. I know you are asking why in a year where 2.8 million Americans lost their jobs, did the union membership explode to record levels? The Teamsters and labor in general have gotten really aggressive about organizing, and tough economic times demonstrate how valuable unions are to working women and men. Non-union workers think they are fine when the economy is thriving, but when jobs go south, who is representing and fighting for you when your jobs on the line?

The projected prediction is, with president Obama and the congress passing the (EFCA), Teamster membership will double over the next few years. The larger a union becomes, the stronger we are as workers.

Why do you think cooperate America has highly-paid lobbyists trying to throw this bill out?