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Trucking company Jack Cooper to shutter Missouri facility, lay off more than 400 employees

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One of the nation’s largest auto-haulers will lay off hundreds of workers in the Kansas City area following the cancellation of the company’s long standing contract with Ford Motors Inc.

Trucking company Jack Cooper Transport filed notice with Missouri workplace officials on January 14 detailing plans to shutter the company’s Liberty, Missouri, facility located at 1240 Claycomo Road. The Liberty facility is adjacent to a Ford plant.

Closing the Liberty Jack Cooper facility will result in the layoff of 406 workers, including 129 casual yard workers, 116 drivers and 107 yard employees.

The layoffs will be effective February 2, 2025, according to the WARN Notice.

The layoffs come in the wake of news that Ford planned to terminate a decades-long contract with the Kansas City-based auto transport trucking company.

In a January 7 statement, Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said that Ford’s move to cancel the Jack Cooper contract threatened more than 1000 union jobs.

“By taking steps to end its relationship with Jack Cooper, the Ford Motor Company has officially threatened the livelihoods of more than 1,400 Teamsters-represented carhaul workers and their families. Ford, a once iconic American brand, wants to boost its own bottom line by walking away from a family-owned company and into the arms of second-rate third parties that will pay workers less money and far fewer benefits to haul Ford vehicles,” O’Brien said.

Jack Cooper was founded in 1928 as a hauler for General Motors in Kansas City. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest fleets of finished vehicle carriers in North America.

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