| Updated: 12/22/2009 10:14 pm |
Published: 12/22/2009 10:23 am
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Hundreds of Tulsans are out of work after a local trucking company announces it is suspending operations. The news left some of the company’s drivers stranded across the country. Fox 23’s Douglas Clark has the story.
Managers at Arrow Trucking held a meeting with employees Tuesday morning to tell them the company would be suspending operations. But there were few details beyond that.
“No more to be. Arrow Trucking is no more,” says Teresa Williams, the mother of an employee. And what about her son’s job? “It’s gone. No job. No job, no unemployment, no nothing. They said there would be no benefit packages at all.”
After receiving the news, employees then started cleaning out their desks and loading up their cars.
“I’m just praying to God I have a job in a week. It’s Christmas and you lose your job or you don’t know,” says one employee as she loads up her car.
But information as to why the company was closing its doors was scarce. Fox 23 was kicked off the property when we began asking questions. The only information we got was from employees, who told us people had come to repossess the company’s trucks and trailers. Hundreds of drivers all over the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, en route to deliveries, were told to leave their trucks where they were. And we’re told the company suspended their fuel cards.
We spoke with one driver who was on his way home from Texas.
“I spent $200 of my own money to put fuel in this truck so I could make it to Tulsa,” says driver Jeff Keen.
Employees say the owner of the 60-year-old company, Doug Pielsticker, was nowhere to be found when the news was delivered. They say there were signs the company was having financial problems.
“Yesterday [my son] called to tell me his payroll check had bounced,” says Doreen Slone.
Some employees even tell us there have been problems with money, deducted from paychecks for child support, not making it to the state.
It’s unclear right now whether or not the company will resume operations. Sources are telling us the company is working on getting those stranded drivers bus tickets back home.
A competitor of Arrow, Link America, says it has positions open and is interested in hiring some of Arrow's employees. Also, John Christner Trucking has limited openings and says Arrow employees are encouraged to apply.
