“FedEx Express claims it is an airline,” the Teamsters press release began on Monday. “So why aren’t flight attendants on the delivery trucks? Because FedEx’s claim is ludicrous – truck drivers aren’t pilots.”
To be honest, our organization rarely finds common ground with organized labor. For example, we oppose card check while supporting the right of businesses to hire permanent replacement workers. We also support right-to-work laws while opposing prevailing wage laws and project labor agreements.
But like the proverbial broken clock, even organized labor gets it right once in a while. Such is the case in this matter of closing the FedEx loophole which treats FedEx Express truck drivers like pilots instead of….truck drivers.
More from Monday’s Teamster’s press release:
FedEx Express is the only freight and package delivery company in the United States with a corporate loophole that it lobbied for and won from Congress in 1996, allowing it to classify its truck drivers, sorters, loaders and unloaders as airline workers under the Railway Labor Act. Those workers never even touch an airplane.
It’s time to level the playing field, and Congress is poised to impose one set of rules for all package delivery companies.
“FedEx bought its special status through political arm-twisting, plain and simple,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “But now Congress must do the right thing and close the loophole. Americans are tired of giveaways to corporations, especially to a company that can’t even be upfront about what it really does.”
In our opinion, Mr. Hoffa is correct on this issue in the sense that it’s not a union issue. It’s an issue of equal treatment under the law. FedEx Express drivers doing the exact same work as UPS drivers should be treated the same under our nation’s labor laws. And since it was Congress which, inadvertently or not, gave FedEx this special corporate welfare benefit, it’s up to Congress to level the playing field again.
For additional information on this issue, please visit www.FedExcess.info