General Motors and Jack Cooper have ended their relationship after contract negotiations reached an impasse late Friday, leading the nearly 100-year-old vehicle hauling company to start winding down operations with an expected loss of 2,500 jobs.
The contract talks, which had been in intense negotiations for 24 hours, ended at about 11 p.m. Friday, according to people familiar with the discussions. Shortly thereafter, early Saturday, GM restarted shipments of its new vehicles from factories to dealerships using other haulers, a person familiar with the situation told the Detroit Free Press. That person asked not to be named because they were not authorized to share information publicly.
The move follows GM’s stop-shipment order Thursday afternoon. As the Detroit Free Press was first to report, the automaker ordered the halt of vehicle shipments from factories as the contract talks intensified. It was a precaution because GM did not want to risk thousands of new cars being in transit if the talks failed, which risked leaving millions of dollars’ worth vehicles being unloaded on the sides of roads.
As to who ended the 97-year relationship, both sides pointed at the other. Jack Cooper had sought a new contract with GM — and all of its customers — after Ford Motor Co. canceled its contract with the car hauler last month. Ford was Jack Cooper’s second-largest customer behind GM, so the hauling company needed more money from GM and other customers to stay solvent.
Thousands of jobs gone
In a statement, GM spokesman Kevin Kelly told the Free Press on Saturday, “We can confirm that Jack Cooper Transport management has informed us of their plans to unilaterally stop services to GM, effective immediately. In light of this material breach of their agreement and the ongoing and timely needs of GM’s business, we have no choice but to implement contingency plans with other providers. We do not anticipate any further disruptions to the delivery of our vehicles.”
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Kelly said GM is grateful to all of Jack Cooper’s employees over the years and, “We are helping identify positions at other businesses for impacted (Jack Cooper) employees, and we believe that a significant portion will be successfully transferred.”
In Michigan, Jack Cooper hauled cars made at GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly and Lansing Grand River Assembly plants.
Of the 2,500 jobs connected to Jack Cooper, about 700 were related to Ford’s business. As a result of losing the Ford contract, the company permanently closed its operations in Wayne, and 89 employees associated with that facility were let go early this month. Jack Cooper also has a facility in Dearborn with eight employees, five of whom are union-represented. No Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice has been filed regarding that facility yet, but the company told the Free Press that job cuts are expected there, too.
More than 1,000 jobs at the trucking firm were tied to GM business, said another person who asked to not be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the details of this matter. By GM ending the contract, the person said, GM essentially ends Jack Cooper’s business and nearly all the 2,500 jobs associated with it.
Jack Cooper has made more offers to GM
Jack Cooper CEO Sarah Amico told the Free Press on Saturday during a phone call that the company had been negotiating in good faith with GM for the past week to establish a framework for a contract that would keep the hauling company solvent.
“Yesterday, GM informed Jack Cooper that each of the proposals on the table have been rejected and that GM would be ceasing all business with Jack Cooper,” Amico said.
Amico, who was clearly upset over the developments, told the Free Press that Jack Cooper and GM have done business together since 1928 and Jack Cooper won GM’s “Supplier of the Year” award three times in the last 15 years.
Amico said GM on Friday informed Jack Cooper that it would pull all business from Jack Cooper, rejecting all proposals that were then on the table to continue working together.
In a statement, Amico said: “General Motors also requested that certain services end as soon as Saturday morning, February 8, 2025. Given General Motors’ unilateral decision, Jack Cooper’s management and Board of Directors were faced with no choice but to take certain actions to protect its employees and other stakeholders. Jack Cooper remains ready, willing and able to negotiate with General Motors regarding a continued business relationship. Jack Cooper has made additional offers to General Motors and awaits its response.”
The Teamsters statement
As the Free Press reported Jan. 8 when Ford ended its 40-year contract with Jack Cooper, the move angered the Teamsters union, which represents about 1,400 of the 2,500 employees at Jack Cooper. The union indicated at that time it would fight for the union jobs at the company.
Teamster spokesperson Kara Deniz sent the Detroit Free Press the following statement Saturday afternoon: “While Jack Cooper may be winding down its operations with Ford and GM, that does not mean the jobs of well-paid, union-protected Teamsters are leaving this industry. This is Teamster work. Hardworking Teamsters have loyally hauled Ford and GM vehicles for generations. That doesn’t end now. Our members in this industry follow the work under our national contract, regardless of who the employer is. The Teamsters will defend our work and our members in carhaul at all costs. No matter what contractor is working with companies like Ford and GM, Teamsters will ultimately be pulling the vehicles. Short-term agreements are being negotiated to permit other carriers to briefly handle loads as Jack Cooper engages in its own negotiations with these carmakers. More permanently, the Teamsters are already securing new commitments with other employers in the space, ensuring our members continue to work under the protections of our national carhaul contract to preserve our historic work with Ford and GM.”
In a social media post Friday, Avral Thompson, who is the president of Teamsters Local 89, one of the largest Teamsters locals in the country, which represents Jack Cooper workers in Louisville, Kentucky, addressed members.
Thompson’s post read: “We have had a terrible couple of weeks, first with Ford Motor Company and now with General Motors. I wanted to let you know that the (the Teamsters) and the carhaul division are working on this problem, this is as bad as it gets, but we’ll get through it.”
He confirmed in the post that shipments of cars by Jack Cooper has been halted from GM at the automaker’s following plants: Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas; Bowling Green Assembly in Kentucky; Arlington Assembly in Texas; Wentzville Assembly in Missouri; and Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana. The post said vehicle shipments had been picked up by other National Motor Freight Traffic Association carriers.
In the post, Thompson said the union will schedule a call “early next week” when it is better informed.
Neither Ford nor GM would disclose what companies are hauling its cars now.
Late night notices
Several employees of Jack Cooper reached out to the Free Press over the past 24 hours saying they were to not report to work.
One employee sent the Free Press an email received at 10:59 p.m. Friday from Jack Cooper management: “We apologize for the late-night email. As you may have heard, please do not report to work tomorrow UNLESS asked directly by management. Negotiations are still ongoing. We will provide updates and additional information as soon as possible tomorrow. These are challenging times, and we know the uncertainty only adds to the difficulty. Our people have always and will always remain at the heart of every decision we make. While we cannot offer certainty, we can promise to do everything in our power to achieve the best possible outcome for our team.”
Since Ford canceled its contract with Jack Cooper, the car hauler has closed some facilities and cut jobs. Last month, the company laid off about 400 workers at its facility near Kansas City, Missouri. Those job losses prompted two U.S. senators earlier this week to write a letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley demanding to know why the automaker canceled a decadeslong contract with its car hauling company and saying they want Ford to confirm it will fulfill legal obligations included in the original contract. Ford did not provide a comment in reaction to the senators’ request.
The contract was not set to expire, but it did have a clause that allowed Ford to end it sooner if the Dearborn-based carmaker wanted to do so. Sources familiar with the move said no one at Ford provided a reason to Jack Cooper for the termination.
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(This story has been updated with additional information.)
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
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