A brief story appearing in today’s Alaska Journal of Commerce continues the disinformation campaign being waged by FedEx over an amendment to place FedEx Express delivery drivers under the same labor law as every other express delivery driver in the nation.

According to the story, an amendment to House Bill 915 “would lift regulations barring FedEx truck drivers and other employees from unionizing and organizing strikes. The bill would not affect pilots.” Maury Lane of FedEx says in the story, “It’ll shut down our operations in Alaska.”

First, there’s a reason the bill would affect drivers and not pilots. That’s because drivers of trucks aren’t the same as pilots of airplanes and shouldn’t be treated as if they are under the law.

Secondly, the amendment would not lift a ban on FedEx drivers joining a union or organizing a strike because no such ban exists. FedEx Express drivers are free to join a union today if they so choose. So this claim is simply not accurate….which, unfortunately, is par for the course in FedEx’s PR and lobbying campaign against this provision in the legislation.

Thirdly, despite Mr. Lane’s histrionics, passage of this field-leveling amendment won’t “shut down” FedEx operations in Alaska….or anywhere else.

Under a worst-case scenario, the law change *might* make it a little easier for *some* FedEx Express locations to unionize. But that doesn’t mean any of them will. And even if some locations do unionize, that doesn’t mean there will be a strike. And even if there is a strike, that doesn’t mean it would be in Alaska. But even if there is a strike in Alaska, that doesn’t mean FeEx Express can’t use other drivers to deliver their packages. But even if FedEx Express couldn’t find replacement drivers during a strike, that doesn’t mean there aren’t competitors who can and would make deliveries during any strike.

If UPS can operate successfully with a unionized workforce, certainly FedEx could, too, if the worst-case scenario they’re painting were to come about. But if not, then that simply proves the company is only able to be in the express delivery business today because of a loophole in the law which unfairly discriminates against its competitors. That makes the loophole nothing short of “corporate welfare.”

That’s just wrong. And Congress should right that wrong.