Fedex threatens to cancel Boeing orders

[Jurassic Jet]

Seems Fred is not a real fan of card check.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/FedEx-threatens-to-cancel-rb-14736526.html

 

[embpic1]

I say screw 'em. Call their bluff. Holding a/c orders over the heads of Congress is a desperate act. I hope Congress doesn't fall for this crap.

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

This epitomizes balls. It seems like a weak last ditch effort to block the unions.

Like it's always been said "A company with a union, deserved a union!"

 

[2Green]

I've thrown my share of boxes at FDX. Those people do deserve a union.

 

[Redmeat]

I say screw 'em. Call their bluff. Holding a/c orders over the heads of Congress is a desperate act. I hope Congress doesn't fall for this crap.

Congress typically responds strongly to a perceived threat against their authority or being hoodwinked (auto execs flying private jets to DC wanting taxpayer money).

I think Fred played the wrong hand on this one, especially given the current atmosphere on Capital Hill.

 

[densoo]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123791678454427343.html
Plus classic comments by the "let them eat cake crowd"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123791678454427343.html#articleTabs=comments

"It is exceedingly unlikely that we would purchase those airplanes" should Congress change the law, said FedEx spokesman Maury Lane. The legislation could cripple the company and eliminate the need for the extra planes, Mr. Lane said.

Deja vu?

"It is exceedingly unlikely that we would expand our cotton production should the President enter into a Civil War," said the South's spokesman Jefferson Davis. "It would cripple our plantation production should we lose the labor advantage that slavery provides."

 

[Colonel Savage]

"It is exceedingly unlikely that we would expand our cotton production should the President enter into a Civil War," said the South's spokesman Jefferson Davis. "It would cripple our plantation production should we lose the labor advantage that slavery provides."

DING DING DING...WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

 

[brownie]

Thank god Mcbush wasn't elected president, With freddy and johnny so tight the unions would ve been in a world of s..tuke:

 

[JFReservist]

Card Check

Do any of you guys know what card check is?!?

Don't EVER equate slavery with a job... that you volunteer for. You don't like the job, go somewhere else.

Oh, and I threw boxes there too. It sucked, along with digging ditches and flipping burgers. That's why I left to do better things. I'd hardly call that slavery.

The comparison is sickening.

 

[Redmeat]

Do any of you guys know what card check is?!?

Don't EVER equate slavery with a job... that you volunteer for. You don't like the job, go somewhere else.

Oh, and I threw boxes there too. It sucked, along with digging ditches and flipping burgers. That's why I left to do better things. I'd hardly call that slavery.

The comparison is sickening.

Yes you're absolutely right you're outta there goodbye!!!

Next!!!

 

[Captain Morgan]

I'm with JFReservist on this one. Don't be fooled, unions are a business and a political tool, nothing more.

 

[bukakke]

I think this is finally justice served. Fred stole the postal contract through the help of Ted Stevens, and now he kicks the dirt because he now is going to finally ante up. I don't think the labor friendly Dems are going to fall for this ploy.

 

[Mason]

Do any of you guys know what card check is?!?

Don't EVER equate slavery with a job... that you volunteer for. You don't like the job, go somewhere else.

Oh, and I threw boxes there too. It sucked, along with digging ditches and flipping burgers. That's why I left to do better things. I'd hardly call that slavery.

The comparison is sickening.

I'm also with JFReservist. What are the two weakest segments of US business? Airlines and Automakers.

What do they share in common? Heavy unionization.

"Card Check" is a job killer....period.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

"Card Check" is a job killer....period.

Yeah, that unionzed SWA is a real job killer.....


So corporate growth is based upon keeping workers rights at bay.....

What a country!

 

[pipe]

Card check is designed to deny the employer an opportunity to campaign against a unionization vote.

By my estimates any employer has the ability to do that each and every day by treating employees fairly. Unionizing efforts don't just appear in places where they're not needed.

PIPE

 

[Bob Dylan]

Yeah, and I give heavily unionized UPS only a few more months too!

What a tragedy for a union to provide better wages, better safety and better benefits for worker.

 

[JFReservist]

My post had more to do with equating slavery with a job... not unions. I'm not even going to start on unions, frankly because I'm torn on that issue. They have proved to be extremely beneficial WHEN they have the safety and overall working conditions in mind (including pay and benefits). But do I want my vote held over my head? He!! no.

Have a union drive, let the merits of each position and your principals guide your vote. Not intimidation from either side.

Honestly folks, don't cede either side your liberty and pursuit of happiness. If its a job worth staying at, and you want to change things, great, get involved - work to make the conditions better.

If you have a better idea, and no one listens, and you know you can do it better - follow your dream, use your God given ability and start a new business. Create your own wealth and capital and use your resources wisely. Be the better boss than that other guy. Get the support of your employees, the ones that sacrifice and work hard to see your corporate vision. Share your wealth and prosperity with them when you do well, sacrifice with them when times are tough. And when your employees want to unionize...

So much for not getting started...

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

If its a job worth staying at, and you want to change things, great, get involved - work to make the conditions better.

If you have a better idea, and no one listens, and you know you can do it better - follow your dream, use your God given ability and start a new business. Create your own wealth and capital and use your resources wisely. Be the better boss than that other guy. Get the support of your employees, the ones that sacrifice and work hard to see your corporate vision. Share your wealth and prosperity with them when you do well, sacrifice with them when times are tough.

Who has time for all that?

Just vote for a union. Preferably the biggest, nastiest, noisiest one that will have you. One with lots of connections, both political (for the things that can be changed in the houses of legislature) and non-political (for those that respond only to a well-placed baseball bat or firebomb). Remember always Al Capone's first rule of negotiation - "You'll get more with a kind word and a gun than you will with a kind word alone" Fred Smith didn't get to where he is by "not" twisting arms or exerting political pressure when needed, neither should you be.

Let him buy his damn airplanes anyplace he pleases. Chances are they'll be built by union employees in any case.

 

[AceCrackshot]

I'm also with JFReservist. What are the two weakest segments of US business? Airlines and Automakers.

What do they share in common? Heavy unionization.

"Card Check" is a job killer....period.

I'd say that DECADES of crappy management had more to do with their weakness than unionization.

Unionization is the bad manager's cry for why he can't do his job..."The union won't let me."

Whatever.

 

[densoo]

Don't EVER equate slavery with a job... that you volunteer for. You don't like the job, go somewhere else.

Oh, and I threw boxes there too. It sucked, along with digging ditches and flipping burgers. That's why I left to do better things. I'd hardly call that slavery.

The comparison is sickening.

What is being compared is the system that created and sustained slavery then, and what seems to be managements only way of dealing with costs today, to drive labor costs down and then live in a palace. They'll only be satisfied with zero labor costs and membership in the billionaire club. And THAT is sickening.

Slavery was a sustained and brutal atrocity against a class of people. It was driven by the addiction to the cost advantage it provided. Even after the Civil War, Jim Crow continued the abomination of racism right into our lifetimes.

The affects of it aren't something that was long ago and far away. They are here and now. The cheap labor this provided was so purvasive and complete--from the first settlements to the founding of our country to segragation--that it is now part of American corporate DNA. Corporate American just can't seem to shake the idea that lower labor costs are the answers to all their problems and their ticket to American royalty.

It is pretty evident that laws designed to protect the worker's contract, benefits, pension, haven't been worth the paper they were printed on. Unions are just about the last thing left which has some hope of holding the degradation of the American worker in check. Why do you think corporate America is pulling out all the stops to prevent unionization? "If you pass this bill I won't buy 30 777s and 100,000 people will lose their jobs. Why? Because I said so." Talk about one man's outsized view of himself! He'll put thousands of workers on the street because he wants it all. Nothing more than blackmail.