FedEx Readies Campaign against UPS over Labor Bill
NEW YORK -- FedEx Corp. is set to launch a multimillion dollar marketing campaign on Tuesday against chief rival UPS Inc., arguing the world's largest shipping carrier is the driving force behind a bill that would make it easier for FedEx workers to unionize.
The bill currently before Congress would switch FedEx to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act from the National Railway Labor Act. The Railway Labor Act allows workers to organize, if all workers vote on a union at the same time. That has been a roadblock to unions that could not afford nationwide organizing campaigns.
If FedEx Express workers were to be reclassified under the National Labor Relations Act, they could organize one terminal at a time.
FedEx's nearly 5,000 pilots are the company's only employees that currently have a union. The company has a total work force of 290,000. UPS has about 425,000 workers; more than half are union members. Most of UPS' unionized workers are members of the Teamsters.
FedEx says that UPS will benefit from the legislation because it could potentially drive up costs for its closest competitor. FedEx also argues that more unions would mean a greater chance of work slowdowns or strikes.
UPS didn't immediately comment on the FedEx campaign.
"It's nothing but a back door attempt to make us less reliable," FedEx's Director of Corporate Communications said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "It's a legislative bailout for a profitable company."
FedEx also warns that shipping rates for consumers will "skyrocket" if the change is made.
FedEx plans to launch a Web site on Tuesday called "brownbailout.com," referring to UPS' nickname, "Big Brown." It will urge consumers to contact their legislators and speak out against the proposed change. The site is part of a multimedia effort, including videos and TV commercials, that will be launched over an unspecified period.
"America relies too much on the reliability and dependability of its overnight-delivery network, and we can't allow this bailout to pass only because UPS can't compete in today's marketplace," Lane wrote in marketing materials for the campaign.
WashingtonPost
Fed Ex is spewing sour grapes here. They have operated for many years without a fair playing field and now they are mad at the possibilities ahead.
I must admit, seldom do I applaud the legislative efforts of UPS, but this time I totally agree for several reasons.
From a Union standpoint, this proposed reclassification makes it possible to organize all Fed Ex workers. Organized under the Railway Act, the organizer has about no chance of ever being successful. When can they ever get 290,000 workers to vote at the same time?
The inevitable organizing of Fed Ex workers into a national contract with the Teamsters will then put that company in the same circumstances as UPS, and then we will see which company can deliver the best service at the best price. UPS has been profitable in spite of it's Union represented employees all these decades.
Fed Ex can say whatever they want to, but it is all sour grapes. Why shouldn't both companies have the same market factors, especially since Fed Ex has seen fit to compete in the ground market?
Poor Fed Ex huh? Don't we all feel badly for them? I mean, since they have always known they don't have to worry about being organized, they have been able to shortchange their employees while UPS has had to pay the higher wages and benefits to everyone. Now they are crying fowl. Too Bad for them.
So, they are warning their prices are going up? Good, then UPS can grab back all those accounts they lost to Fed Ex in the past years while Fed Ex executives counted the big profits and had fun spending them. Now maybe they will have to trim management.
Fed Ex bought RPS Ground operations years ago, and have never made those drivers regular employees. I am absolutely certain that will change when the company is organized under the Teamster's watchful eye. Those men and women will finally get a fair deal for their hard work.
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Hey George, thanks for pointing out this story. Instead of formulating an entirely new comment, I'm going to paste the exact text of the comment I just left at the brownbailout website's blog -- since I have a sneaking suspicion they might not approve it. (The opening line is a reference to the way their website constantly refers to UPS as merely a trucking company, btw.):
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Believing UPS is just a trucking company is almost as idiotic as trying to pretend FedEx is just an airline.
You’re in pretty much the same core business as UPS (who also own an airline and a successful logistics operation, among other businesses), but you believe your business is worthy of an exemption to the rules that govern them? Other than a level playing field for comparable businesses, what exactly is the bailout? I missed the part where UPS was getting a huge check from the federal government.
When you talk about greed, you might want to look in the mirror, rather than criticize a company that operates quite profitably under the same rules you seem to be deathly afraid of.
At some point, an honest examination of the two companies will show that the only real difference between UPS and FedEx is this:
UPS manages to be enormously successful, even with a significantly unionized workforce, while FedEx seems to be publicly admitting their management structure lacks the capacity to achieve the same success. And until the FedEx PR machine can come up with a better line than the one they’ve got, I don’t think most intelligent folks are bound to fall for this self-pity bender.
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