Kroger and multiple trucking carriers asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that U.S. Xpress, Swift Transportation and Werner Enterprises carried out illegal no-hire agreements of former union drivers.
A complaint by former unionized Quickway Transportation drivers challenges their rejected job applications by the three carriers. U.S. Xpress and Swift Transportation are both subsidiaries of Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings.
The complaint alleges illegal anti-competitive collusion in which Kroger allegedly directed the trucking companies not to hire the union drivers after Quickway filed for bankruptcy in early 2026.
Defense attorneys said in filings that the complaint was defective and contained “vague and conclusory allegations.” The rebuttals notably argued that the restraint-of-trade claim fails to show horizontal dealmaking between the transportation businesses.
“[T]hese allegations are ‘labels and conclusions’ that are subject to scrutiny, not well-pleaded facts the Court should accept as true,” U.S. Xpress and Swift Transportation also said in their filing.
The allegations, if true, only describe a series of vertical agreements between Kroger and its suppliers, Knight-Swift carriers said in the response.
Attorneys for the defendants further suggested that no such horizontal dealmaking is properly established in the complaint. “Plaintiffs do not allege—because they cannot—that Werner, Swift, and USX conspired and agreed with each other not to hire former Quickway drivers,” the carriers’ filing said, bolding and italicizing part of the remarks.
Additionally, the three drivers in the case are seeking to get the lawsuit certified as a class action, but a responding motion directs the Ohio-based federal court not to recognize a larger group of potential litigants in this matter.
