FedEx’s disingenuous “Brown Bailout” PR campaign has attempted to persuade Congress that a loophole in the nation’s labor law that benefits FedEx and only FedEx shouldn’t be closed by an amendment to the current FAA reauthorization bill. As such, it has accused rival UPS of holding up the bill when, in fact, it’s a veto threat on behalf of FedEx by the company’s home-state senators that is actually delaying final passage.
In an editorial yesterday titled “What About Air Safety,” the New York Times exposed FedEx’s high-priced, self-serving lobbying campaign to the public:
Last year’s crash of a commuter plane near Buffalo, which killed 50 people, highlighted the need for more stringent pilot training and tougher rules about how long pilots can fly before they are required to rest. Those reforms have been irresponsibly sidetracked by one of Capitol Hill’s nastiest and most expensive lobbying fights over the unrelated issue of unionization rules at the rival delivery companies, FedEx and United Parcel Service. . . .
The House’s aviation bill, led by Representative James Oberstar, a Democrat of Minnesota and a union champion, would finally put the two companies on the same footing. Mr. Oberstar argues adamantly that a Republican Congress unfairly allowed FedEx special antiunion protections in 1996, and this needs to be corrected.
The Senate-passed measure has no such provision. And a filibuster is threatened to protect FedEx by Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, Republicans of Tennessee, where, of course, FedEx is based. Far more than parochial posturing is at stake in the bill, which also includes modernization of the air traffic control system.
Both sides remain unyielding on the union fight. We sympathize with Representative Oberstar’s point and find the filibuster threat on behalf of FedEx shameless. Congress needs to rise above this to serve the one special interest most at stake: air passenger safety.
As a pro-business, free-market conservative advocacy organization, we recognize that many Republicans see this issue simply as a union issue and have reflexively sided with FedEx. However, this issue is really a matter of equality under law.
Simply put, FedEx should compete in the marketplace under the same federal labor law as everyone else. And in the interest of both air passenger safety and fairness, we find ourselves in the very unusual policy position of agreeing with the Times and urge the Senate to pass the FAA reauthorization bill with the amendment closing the FedEx loophole included.
#1 by Wayne on July 16th, 2010
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I agree with you 100 %. Why is it our representitives in the Senate can’t see its a matter of equality under law ?
This is a no brainer and Fedex should be ashamed of theirselves for the negative campaigning about brown bail out and misleading the facts. Also, what about their ground drivers being misclassified as independent contractors – this is a joke. They are empolyees and should have the same benefits as other employees in the US. As well, FedEx should be paying all the employee taxes due all us tax payers as well. All we are doing is putting more profit in to FedEx pockets at the expense of their employees and us – the tax payers……..