House Provision Could Cost FedEx Millions, Stall Deliveries

UPS doesn't want "level playing field"

First, to the most recent poster - UPS does not have "just as many, if not more aircraft than FedEx". Get your facts straight or the rest of your post is meaningless. FedEx is the 2nd largest airline in the world (formally first until the NWA/Delta merger). With UPS making billions more than FedEx, they can't be taken seriously when they say that they "want a level playing field". UPS and the Teamsters do not join forces to help each other, but only for their own selfish reasons. They are pooling their resources for their own agendas. UPS doesn't want to compete with FedEx, they want to bury them. A "level playing field" would require FedEx to be unionized nationally, like UPS. This bill would cause FedEx to unionize locally and cause massive disruptions (playing right in to UPS's hands). FedEx would constantly be negotiating with "locals" across the country. Customers, afraid that their packages would become "stuck" in the system if a specific area went on strike, would be afraid to tender those packages to FedEx.... Win-UPS! The Teamsters, who's leaders become rich while brainwashing their followers in to believing that they actually care about them, are licking their chops at the prospect of tens of thousands more dues paying members. Remember, unions are socialist organizations that want nothing more than to tear down the 200 years of capitalism that has made this country great. UPS and FedEx should both be governed under a new TLA (Transportation Labor Act) that would protect the country from any disruption in the transportation of goods and services.

FedEx/UPS

If people think that FedEx should remain under the RLA then I suggest making the same rules apply to UPS. UPS has just as many, if not more aircraft than FedEx. What ever rules they fall under I think it should be the same for both companys.

Fed Ex Employees

After reading all the comments posted it appears that most of the people that disagree with Fed Ex's position are Fed Ex employees.So if their employees dont buy the propaganda that Fed Ex is putting out about UPS then why should anyone else even listen. Its apparent that Fed Ex is taking from employees and spending the money to black mail congress.

Why Not Just Let Them Vote?

I've been following this thread and many others about this issue for a while. So MANY posters bring up the issue, "If FedEx Express isn't afraid of unions, then why are they fighting this? Just let the employees vote." Anything UPS and the Teamsters want THIS badly cannot possibly be good for FedEx. So, FedEx should allow itself to be railroaded (ha ha) into a Congressional rule change without fighting back? Three parties have dogs in this hunt.

1) The Teamsters goal is two-fold: a) more dues-paying members and b) better bargaining clout for a UPS contract.

2) UPS goal is to win more business from FedEx. Even the threat of service disruptions or the fear of increased costs will drive customers to seek the newly relative "stability" of UPS.

3) FedEx Express goal is to continue with the same business model they've had since day one inception. (FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight are NOT impacted by this possible legislation. They are already NLRA companies and are not unionized, by the employees' choice).

Now, regarding "just let the employees vote." Employees can do that today -- albeit on a national level. Many folks don't think the majority of FedEx Express employees want to be Teamsters. Even the Teamsters don't think so or they would have tried a national campaign. The point of the RLA campaign by UPS and the Teamsters is DISRUPTION. There will inevitably be some stations here and there that will vote in a union. However, all that will do is set off rounds and rounds and rounds of litigation. Express has almost 600 stations around the country. They CANNOT possibly certify a single station as a bargaining unit, thus possibly triggering 600 different contracts. No major corpration could function with "micro-contracts." Not even UPS does that. UPS has some large, regional Teamster contracts, then some "local" contracts -- such as the entire Chicago metro area (not a station or two within Chicago...)

So, FedEx will then, of course, fight in court to determine the appropriate bargaining unit size -- it will have to. It simply cannot be the single-station level. In the meantime, UPS and the Teamsters will continue a media campaign trying to paint FedEx as anti-union and the Teamsters will begin their organizaing efforts in earnest. They will want to trigger as many "bargaining unit lawsuits" as possible in as many districts as possible (for maximum distruption -- throwing maximum business to UPS) -- all while conducting "home visits" to employees' homes pressuring them to sign cards.

That is why FedEx is fighting to maintain their appropriate legal status. Eventually having a union (at an appropriate bargaining unit site) is not the nightmare scenario. Never was. It's the prolonged, nasty, ugly, massively disruptive process along the way.

To FedEx Girl in Ohio

You have to take an hour for lunch but if the freight is late then half an hour is OK by Management? Duh! The freight business is a variable business if you have not figured that out. There are so many factors like weather, traffic, etc that can impact it. You need to work on an assembly line or something so the "buzzer" can dictate your day. You're in the wrong discipline. My buddy works for FedEx in Canada and they are union free and loving it! I for one will be trying to get into a company like FedEx when I'm done school. They constantly rank "up there" in the Best Places to work category!............ You need to find another job. Go to UPS if you think they are "it".

FedEx should be left alone to run its business.

Nowadays, Congressmen are always being lobbied by corporations that they feel pressured to do something in return. I've lost my trust for most of them. There are a few good and decent folks in Congress but most of them are rich and out of touch with the average people. Let companies run their own business. Specifically, let FedEx run its business. Don't pass legislation in favor of one company over another. If UPS wants to be under the RLA, which governs FedEx Express, then go ahead. What stops UPS from doing that? Why spending the dirty money lobbying for a legislation that would force FedEx into being governed by NLRA. Corruptions and corporate influence have become so very much a part of what goes on in Washington. Unions have caused American motor companies like GM, Chrysler, and Ford to be less competitive against their Japanese counterparts because unions drive up the cost of doing business. One might say union helps him/her family. That could be true. But if the company one works for has its workers unionized, I'm sure it costs that company much more to operate. The extra costs would have to be shared by its customers. Consumers would most likely have to pay for it indirectly without even realizing it. From what I’ve seen and heard, in today's world, unions have created competitive disadvantages for American companies. I want American companies to succeed by being competitive. No union!

Fedex Shoots self in Foot

Fedex is not an Railway company. It does not want to pay the scale of a UPS. It is paying to use contract drivers at Ground (Formerly RPS) and they get no benefits either. This advertising and spin from UPS' whiteborad commercial is only backfiring on Fred Smith and his Companies. Remember this the same person who took his final EMPLOYEE payroll and gambled it in Las Vegas to stay alive as a Company back in the beginning.

God Bless Da Teamsters

Time to shove an AirBus up Smith's ass sideways and snap it off...God Bless Da Teamsters, God Bless James P. and James R. Hoffa, and let us pray that Smith and all his Nazi managers drop dead from heart attacks and strokes in the next couple of days.......18 years with a company that loves to f*ck it's employess every chance it gets.......what a complete waste of time......to those even thinking of getting into the freight business, stay clear of FedEx or any one of it's UPS ripoff side companies........

head dummies in charge...let the workers to vote yay or nay!!

ohh the big bad union..blah..blah..blah! i don't understand what the gripe is all about. it's just a vote. let me the worker vote YES i do or NO i don't! this is the USA people not China, India, Korea or some other third world domain. so why should we as workers slave for pennies to the phat kats billions of dollars! the biggest error our corporate structure has created is there are not enough checks and BALANCES for the top $$ percent which is where all the loot stays. and their supposed brilliant minds which only translate on a computer flat screen nowadays lacks the basic amount of COMMON SENSE needed to be relative. CEO's & upper elitist need to learn a lesson about taking care of their own & if done with respect and fairness it WILL pay off. a lot of you run off @ the mouth saying unions don't deserve to be a part of our corporate structure. well goody good 4 you that feel that way & come ballot day you be sure to vote NO. but not everyone shares that philosophy. that's where the rite to vote comes in. i hope fedex's millions of $$ they spend campaigning against unions finds itself in the toilet. then the truth will be shown. if the majority of fedex workers are anti-union then the bill passing won't mean jack & operations will continue as they have all along. but if those anti-union fedex workers are in fact in the minority then fred et al will get their just dessert..and a nice BIG pile of it which will be just what tha union and the hard workers ordered!! as i see it there are better ways to spend millions of dollars besides giving to lobbyist, politicians, and anti-campaign ads. how bout taking those same million$ & spreading the wealth among your hard workers. if this was done this debate would cease to exist!

Re Rocky from Mo

I am the wife of a union employee that has been layed-off after 18 years with the same company. Since you seem to think there is no reason for unions, which amazes me that you can think, yet you give no reason except the AWU let me help you to understand. First and foremost I thank the union everyday that I can go to the doctor and not have to pay huge costs (I pay nothing). My children can be seem by their primary care physician, their eye doctor, their dentist, a specialist if needed at anytime for anything. When there are millions of people that are not able to. Second, the reason the car makers are moving overseas is not because of the unions. Property taxes are higher here, resources mostly come from overseas now, and oh lets see most of the CEO's of these car companies make huge bonuses and do nothing for them. What shocks me is that you can sit in your office chair, probably in a nice cushy office with a view, and pass judgement on something you know nothing about. Then you have the audacity to make a comment to Fedex girl in Ohio about how she should take a course in writing when you yourself had several errors. Why don't you get off our high horse and join the rest of America on the ground.