Shares of YRC Worldwide Inc. dropped the most in eight weeks as its Teamsters union members voted to reject a labor contract extension needed for the trucker to refinance more than $1 billion of debt and avoid default
Voting results from YRC’s 26,000 Teamsters show the extension was defeated 61 percent to 39 percent. Teamsters in Local 24 working at YRC’s Akron area operations rejected the pact 362-182, according to vote counts posted at the union website.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a group within the union that’s critical of leadership, said on its website Thursday that an estimated 19,600 ballots were cast.
YRC fell 16 percent to $15.67, the biggest decline since Nov. 13. Shares of Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC more than doubled last year. The company includes the former Roadway in Akron.
YRC Chief Executive Officer James Welch has said investors and creditors won’t refinance debt, including $952 million of bonds and bank loans, maturing by March 2015 without extending the labor contract into 2019.