Blog for Democracy

Somebody Check the Watercooler Content at FedEx

icon_water_cooler.jpgFrom threatening to not buy American made planes if they don’t get their way, to one of their bigshots announcing that they will destroy (yes i said destroy) members of congress, the FedEx “hissyfit” I referenced in my previous post continues over the house passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act which includes an ammendment that would take FedEx out from under the Railway Labor Act and place them under the National Labor Relations Act. Now they are threatening a Jihad against UPS, who they accuse of conspiring with the evil Teamsters union (bwahahahahaha) to make it easierfor FedEx workers to join a union.They seem to be willing to spend millions on fighting the legislation and punishing those who support it even though they have been forced to lay off hundreds of employees and slash pension benefits.


For those who are not fluent in labor law, FedEx ‘s air delivery operations are currently covered under the Railway Labor Act which covers airlines and well railroads. Under the RLA, if the workers choose to organize, they would have to organize nationwide as a single unit. And if that doesn’t make it hard enough to organize, anyone who does not vote gets counted as a no vote. Needless to say this has given FedEX an advantage over it’s workers who see the advantages their counterparts at UPS have due to union representation. While I am usually not in a habit of quoting UPS corporate types this says it all:

Malcolm Berkley, a spokesman for UPS, read a statement: “FedEx’s apparent attempt to raise the noise level here doesn’t change the facts. It would appear that FedEx is preparing to spend millions of dollars trying to convince Congress that a FedEx driver delivering a package is different somehow than a UPS driver delivering a package. The packages aren’t delivered by airplane, and we don’t think FedEx can fool Congress about that.”

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8 responses to “Somebody Check the Watercooler Content at FedEx”

  1. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    UPS,FedEx, and the USPS are all efficient companies or entities in their own right as far as customer service. From a consumer standpoint, take your pick. But if you care about whether your dollars go insofar as supporting companies that provide good jobs and respect or have been forced to respect their workers to some degree and have accepted it, you have to go with either UPS or the USPS.

    As far as UPS being the “good guy” in this scenario, they most certainly are in comparison to FedEx. Here some comparisons: UPS has been under a Teamster contract for roughly 50 years and has a contract where ALL the employees pay ZERO for their healthcare, have pensions and receive more than fair wage increases with a UPS Package Car Driver making nearly $29.00 an hour in wages alone. FedEx has ferociously resisted unionization for decades and has constructed extremely controversial employment arrangements including their sweet heart deal that got them put under the RLA and misclassification of it’s ground delivery drivers as “independent contractors” which forces the driver to pay for the upkeep of their vehicles, buy their own gas, and helps FedEx save billions by not paying workman’s comp or for benefits at all.

    UPS agreed to be neutral and respect it’s employees right to organize after it purchased UPS Freight (formerly Overnite) . FedEx has refused to allow it employees to organize ANYWHERE and wages vicious anti union campaigns.

    Don’t get me wrong, I have to deal with UPS on a day to day level, I help represent UPS workers and my local represents all the UPS workers in the state. They do violate the rights of their workers. The difference is they do business according to a union contract that includes a grievance procedure that gives UPS Teamsters a vehicle to address violations.

  2. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    I find USPS extremely efficient, a lot of if depends on how far your personal P.O. is from the hub, but my own mailbox and the W peachtree P.O. deliver faster than any other service i could pay for.

  3. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    I personally like USPS. People who always rag on the USPS’s efficiency have no idea. A personal representative from the government goes to every address in the country six days a week almost always without fail.

    If that’s not efficient I don’t know what is.

    Fedex and UPS are much smaller, it’s natural for them to be sometimes quicker.

  4. CatherineAtlanta Avatar
    CatherineAtlanta

    Frankly, I’m a little shocked to see UPS being touted as “the good guy” in anything labor related.

    Let’s just take a little reality check here.

    UPS would happily be union-free. The enemy of our enemy is not our friend in this example…

    The competition garnered by having two strong private delivery companies is good for us. It’s good for American business, good for consumers, and good for workers. I would even say that it’s been good for the US Postal Service as they are now the “economy” delivery service and are working with Fedex to provide services.

    I use the services of UPS, Fedex, and USPS every day. Each has it’s strengths, each it’s weaknesses.

  5. sndeak Avatar
    sndeak

    Just one more reason to support UPS.

  6. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    Eric you’re doing great labor reporting keep it up.

  7. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    The easiest way to understand it is that FedEx is considered an airline based company that has a ground delivery component and UPS is considered to be a ground delivery operation that has an airline component.

  8. nicolette Avatar
    nicolette

    so….why isnt UPS covered under the RLA?

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