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Don O'Brien leans against the rusted fence built to protect Interlink Freight Systems' Toronto yard.
"You didn't really, really know," the 27-year driver says of Interlink and lingering suspicions that the employee-owned fleet was in trouble.
Suspicions were laid to rest when Interlink went bankrupt in early July, forcing more than 2,000 employees out of work and marking one of the largest receiverships in the history of Canadian trucking.
About 1,200 workers were sent home July 5, while the remaining staff were left to distribute undelivered loads in the days that followed.
Interlink had faced financial troubles since 1994, when employees bought the fleet for $1 from CP Express, but it had always been saved in deals including employee concessions and a financial bail-out by CP itself.
Just this April, Interlink employees were assured that creditors were happy and that the LTL carrier was on sound financial footing, O'Brien adds.
They weren't. It wasn't.
In July 1996, 2,292 employees voted to put up $36 million of their own money from a contingency liability fund set up by CP Express, and agreed to a 10 per cent cut in hourly wages. The Montreal-based division of Canadian Pacific had bailed out Interlink with a $10.5-million interest-free loan in March 1996--shortly after the fleet's board of directors walked out in fear that members would be held liable for back pay and severance.
The latest trouble began this...