Turns out the Albuquerque (NM) Chamber of Commerce did, in fact, issue a written position paper siding with FedEx Express in that company’s effort to retain a corporate welfare subsidy from the federal government which gives it a competitive advantage over its rivals in the express package delivery biz.
“The Board of Directors of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce supports existing federal labor laws as they apply to the package shipping industry,” the chamber explained in what appears to be a FedEx ghost-written statement issued on December 10, 2009. “The Chamber finds no compelling reason to amend current labor laws.”
Then the chamber is blind….or bought off.
But the really interesting thing here is that the chamber, despite siding with FedEx, accepts UPS’ main argument that there IS an inequity in current federal labor law which benefits FedEx:
“Although UPS argues that regulating FedEx under the NLRA will help ‘level the playing field,’ the Chamber is not convinced that is the best solution for the industry,” the chamber writes. “The seemingly more competitive and flexible solution would be for UPS to be regulated under the RLA.”
NLRA stands or National Labor Relations Act – the labor law that every package delivery driver in the United States is covered under….except those working for FedEx Express.
RLA stands for Railway Labor Act, the federal labor law that treats FedEx Express’ package delivery drivers as though they were airline pilots.
Only in government could this possibly make sense.
In any event, the chamber in its statement DOES acknowledge that there is an unleveled playing field but believes the proposed law placing FedEx’s drivers under the same law as every other driver is not “the best solution.”
Follow the logic here: According the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the best solution to fixing an inequity in federal labor law is to treat all UPS drivers as if they were airline pilots rather than treat FedEx Express’s drivers like….well, drivers.
Yeah. Makes perfect sense.
If you’re Alice in Wonderland.
#1 by judester on January 5th, 2010
| Quote
Someone give me a break…I, as a Fedex courier have never flown, nor will I ever fly an airplane..I can’t even jump seat. I do the same job as every UPS driver out there. I deliver and pick up packages..It’s as simple as that…There is no difference between what I do and what a UPS driver does.