Do not get me or this website wrong. I have nothing personal against FedEx. In fact, I continue to use the company on occasion, as I do the post office – but only because the monopoly the post office enjoys over first class mail gives me no other choice.
No, this brouhaha is about a government policy which even some FedEx Express employees disagree with. Consider the following voicemail I received last weekend.
“Hey, Chuck. I’m a FedEx Express delivery driver. I just wanted to tell you I appreciate what you’re doing on your FedExcess website. We need more people like you getting the facts out there.”
And that’s what FedExcess.info is all about. Just the facts, ma’am. And the fact is I really only have two problems with FedEx.
The first is over FedEx’s use of “independent contractors.”
The fact is I believe any company should – in a free, ideal world – be able to enter into whatever employment relationship it chooses with willing workers. An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay – as determined by the worker and the boss. Why should the federal government have anything to say about a private employer/employee relationship in any manner whatsoever?
Indeed, it’s a great philosophical and theoretical debate – the kind of debate many libertarians love to have rather than do the hard work of actually getting their candidates elected. But here on Planet Reality, the government is in our businesses and our wallets and our hair whether we like it or not – and the least we should expect from that reality is equal treatment under the law.
As a limited-government libertarian-conservative, my preference would be for everyone to have the ability to classify its workers the way FedEx has classified some of its drivers in order to avoid payroll costs and reporting regulations. But that isn’t going to happen anytime soon, especially under this administration.
So the best we can hope for is that the law will be applied equally – and that FedEx’s efforts to stretch the law don’t boomerang on everybody else who is playing by the rules as currently written. FedEx could hurt a lot of other businesses if they keep trying to abuse this law rather than change it.
They should knock it off.
The second problem is this argument over whether or not FedEx Express’s drivers should be covered under the government’s Railway Labor Act or the National Labor Relations Act.
In short, the RLA law is supposed to apply to employees who are “integral” to the operation of a railway or an airline. The NRLA applies to everyone else.
The RLA should apply to employees of FedEx’s airline operation – the process of flying packages and envelopes overnight from city to city. What’s at issue here, however, is whether or not drivers who deliver packages BEFORE and AFTER they are flown from one city to another should be considered “airline” employees.
Of course, they shouldn’t.
These drivers don’t fly your packages to and from your home. They drive them. These workers are drivers, not pilots. They are “taxicabs” for packages. And while picking up and delivering packages to and from airports may be an “integrated” part of FedEx’s corporate model, that doesn’t change the nature and intent of the law itself.
By placing FedEx Express drivers under one law and every other driver under another, it makes it far less likely that FedEx Express would suffer some kind of strike or other labor action by its drivers. And that fact has been used by FedEx over the years as a sales tool to gain an unfair marketing advantage over its rivals.
If FedEx hadn’t used this sweetheart deal with the government for market advantage, we likely wouldn’t be having this conversation today. So in reality, FedEx is actually the agent of its own demise in this regard. The company should have been a lot more careful not to exploit an inequity in the law for its own benefit.
That said, the more outrageous aspect of this is the intentional and anonymous disinformation campaign FedEx has launched to kill this field-leveling bill, and the false and misleading campaign to make people think this change in the law is somehow a “bailout” for UPS.
If FedEx wants to fight to retain this special benefit for its company, fine. But do it openly and honestly using facts and objective reasoning and analysis. Hiding behind the cloak of Internet anonymity and raising the boogeyman of organized labor are cheap political tactics not worthy of a great American corporation such as FedEx.
They should knock it off.
#1 by LR on July 7th, 2009
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Your exactly right Chuck! This campaign that FedX has started is very misleading to the public. They are using dirty words like “bailout” and “hidden package tax” just to mislead the public into thinking they are the victim in this situation. They should at least be straight with people about what they are fighting for. I summarize the situation like this:
FedX’s theorized stance:
Right now it is impossible for our employees to unionize, therefore we can basically do whatever we want and get away with it, we don’t have to promise anything and we can supercede any type of rule to fit our needs. If our employees did have the right to vote for a union then many of them most likely would because we do not pay them competitively compared to others in the industry, and have not set up a fair system of rules that we have to abide by.
Why else would FedX be so afraid of this classification change. If it is changed a majority of employees will still have to vote it in at the location. FedX is acting like they are scared to death of the FAA reauthorization and from what I have heard they should be!
#2 by ofb1995 on July 10th, 2009
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Fedex Express could have avoided putting themselves into this situation by treating it’s employees better (especially it’s senior employees). Since 1988 they have been implementing policies and procedures that have set their express couriers up for wrongful termination and a diminished chance to reach retirement. 1988 – they changed the eligibility to gain maximum medical benefit coverage in retirement from 10 to 20 years. 1994/95 – they started a program called “gainsharing” which quickly turned into “Best Practices”. The M.A.P.S system (Minimum Acceptable Performance Standard) was also put into use. Both M.A.P.S and Best Practices have been used to terminate (wrongfully) senior employees. It is still being used. I have been there over 20 years and have seen these changes take place and the effect it has had on Fedex’s employees. Add to that Fedex taking away profit sharing early on (which we enjoyed in the 80’s), and their unwillingness to compensate it’s employees with at least an adequate pay rate to keep up with inflation throughout the years (even in times of record profits). Fedex employees don’t want a union to “hamstring” it’s operations, stop commerce, or go on strike, they just want to be treated fairly. Fedex has used it’s RLA status to hide behind so they can abuse and retaliate against targeted employees without fear of retribution. Look at any of the recent employee handbooks they give out to employees (that they ask them to sign off on before receiving). The paragraph that says “the company can modify this publication by amending or terminating any policy, procedure, or employee benefit program at any time.” That does not sound like a People-Service-Profit company philosophy to me.
Also, that BrownBailout website bullshit. No one is allowed to post an opposing view on there. It’s moderated and any negative comments are promptly discarded. Some PUBLIC forum, eh?