Potential bad news for FedEx

[B727-100QF]

NLRB rules that FedEx ground drivers are employees. Although this ruling was for a small number of drivers in a certain area, the ramifications for FedEx are huge if all of their non-express drivers are classified as employees by the NLRB. If the teamsters are successful in unionizing them, (having been to teamster meetings with teamster brass, this is VERY high on their agenda) then watch out FedEx, one of your few competitive advantages over UPS will be gone. This would greatly increase FedEx's costs and would probably have an impact on the pilot's contract negotiations.

This post was not meant to bash FedEx or it's pilots. This is for informational purposes only and myself and every other UPS pilot wishes nothing but the best for the FedEx pilots in getting a superior new contract.

Here is the link to the news article.

http://yahoo.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060202:MTFH37420_2006-02-02_21-44-31_N02195276&symbol=FDX.N

 

[Uppercrust]

Will this affect grip and grins??

 

[USNFDX]

I see this as great news. The court is telling Fedex Ground that their outsourcing program of Independent Contractors is not legal because they are basically treating them like employees vice contractors without providing them employee benefits. Since Fedex Express actually competes with Ground, this may affect ground margins, but will make Express more competitive against Ground in certain markets. With another pending "Labor" problem, this may make the company want resolve their pilot issues quickly (but probably not)

 

[VaB]

Let's ask the mechanics how their attempt at getting a union in the door turned out.

I don't think they'd be able to do it. I wasn't here during ALPA I and the intro of FPA, but from all the stories I hear, I'm surprised the pilots are unionized. The FedEx "anti-union" machine has an overdrive gear, and they use it.

As far as the affect that would have on the bottom line and the company overall, I doubt anyone on this board knows.:bomb:

 

[Falconjet]

We're doomed! We're all doomed!

Oops, wrong commercial. Wonder if we'll see that one on Sunday.

I too think that this will be a good wakeup call for the company. What it will do, however, is probably cost some of those drivers their jobs, because FedEx will just get a new set of independent contractors and ease the requirements a bit, and wait out the next set of lawsuits.

Lather, rinse, repeat, years go by and the process just drags on.

Not great news, could be bad news, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

FJ

 

[FoxHunter]

NLRB rules that FedEx ground drivers are employees. Although this ruling was for a small number of drivers in a certain area, the ramifications for FedEx are huge if all of their non-express drivers are classified as employees by the NLRB. If the teamsters are successful in unionizing them, (having been to teamster meetings with teamster brass, this is VERY high on their agenda) then watch out FedEx, one of your few competitive advantages over UPS will be gone. This would greatly increase FedEx's costs and would probably have an impact on the pilot's contract negotiations.

This post was not meant to bash FedEx or it's pilots. This is for informational purposes only and myself and every other UPS pilot wishes nothing but the best for the FedEx pilots in getting a superior new contract.

[/quote]

Not really a big deal. FedEx Ground is a trucking company, just like UPS. Your drivers have very different contracts, pensions depending where they work. Federal Express is an airline, different rules. If you want a union you have to organize system wide. Unions can get support in the traditional pro-union States like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. They have big problems in States where the tradition is anti-union. Since large numbers of employees are from or work in these States all efforts to organize have failed. FedEx Ground may go the way of ZAP MAIL, an idea that did not work. You just may see them just shutting it down, or merging that work into the Express part of FedEx, which happens to be an airline, and any union will have to get the vote system wide. The Ground drivers I believe are "owner operators" so they may just be left out in the cold.

 

[HighNightFlyer]

It is hard to reconcile the PSP philosophy with the us vs. them ethos of FedEX management.

So they may have to treat the drivers fairly. This is a problem, how?

The guy that delivers to my house is still waiting for his profit sharing to be restored. That went away a couple years ago and he doesn't know why.

Must be our record profits.

Waiting for purple flak,

HNF

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

I see this as great news...Since Fedex Express actually competes with Ground, this may affect ground margins, but will make Express more competitive against Ground in certain markets.

Higher costs for the company is good for the Pilots???? I see what you mean but don't agree. If the express part ever sees lower margins it sure would be nice to have a higher margin division cushion the blow to the overall corporate bottom line.

An iffy proposition, but possible.

 

[CaptainMark]

that's it ...it's over!!!...swafo..i need a job

 

[Falconjet]

No argument thee

It is hard to reconcile the PSP philosophy with the us vs. them ethos of FedEX management.

So they may have to treat the drivers fairly. This is a problem, how?

The guy that delivers to my house is still waiting for his profit sharing to be restored. That went away a couple years ago and he doesn't know why.

Must be our record profits.

Waiting for purple flak,

HNF

HNF: I bet you won't find a single pilot on the line that would disagree with you. That is one of the points we (the union) are constantly trying to emphasize. Its not just the pilots getting squeezed by FedEx, its all the employees, all this during times of record profits. All we are saying is how about sharing the wealth a little bit with the folks who make those profits happen every night.

That is tough to get across to the media, and my personal opinion is we should be emphasizing it more. That is another reason to make pleasant conversation on the crew bus, we want all the employees behind us (fat chance) in hopes that we can lead the battle to restore some of the lost wages of the entire workforce.

Yes, we are doing it primarily for ourselves, but the rest fo the employees are watching to see how we make out and hopefully they will get their shot too.

Time will tell.

FJ

 

[HighNightFlyer]

FalconJet, I just don't understand why it seems necessary to demoralize the employees. I don't know why FedEx would want to do that.

This reminds me of Carl Icahn saying that he didn't need happy employees. I guess he didn't get that this is a customer service industry and employees will go very far out of their way to help a customer when treated right.

We do want happy customers at FedEx, don't we? Management should be leading the way on this, not the union.

HNF