Teamsters Call on FedEx to Accept Blue Ribbon Commission Panel Recommendations

The Teamsters on Thursday called on FedEx Corp. to accept the findings of a Blue Ribbon Commission panel that include Congress approving key legislation that would afford FedEx workers the same right to freely form a union as comparable workers in other companies.

“The Blue Ribbon Commission heard from FedEx workers how they were at the mercy of their employer because they did not enjoy the same protections of their right to organize a union as their colleagues working for other package companies,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “FedEx has exploited its unbridled power to repeatedly reduce the wages and benefits of its workers.

“As detailed in the Commission's Report, the legal impediments which prevent FedEx employees from forming or joining a union to protect themselves have an impact on the entire community. FedEx's scheme to avoid paying decent wages and benefits undermines the middle class, and its skirting of the tax laws reduces the community's tax base and shifts the burden of public services onto the backs of hard pressed workers. FedEx doesn't deserve a ‘special deal’ and its workers don't deserve to lose their right to organize because FedEx has political influence in Washington.”

The Teamsters support the Express Carrier Employee Protection Act, which is part of the FAA Reauthorization Bill (H.R.915). The Express Carrier act would amend the Railway Labor Act by stipulating that only workers who need FAA certification would fall under labor laws governed by the RLA. All other workers would fall under the National Labor Relations Act.

Currently, all FedEx Express workers fall under the RLA even if they don’t need FAA certification. Under the RLA, workers must form a union nationally, making it more difficult. Under the NLRA, workers can form unions locally.

FedEx workers testified at the Blue Ribbon Commission hearing held in Los Angeles in December on how they are retaliated against for their union activities.

“We just need a voice in the workplace to help stop the erosion of our rights on the job, but management wouldn’t listen,” said Brett Alexander, a FedEx Express Aviation Maintenance Technician from Los Angeles. “The findings in this report will help raise awareness of our plight.”

“The Teamsters support the workers’ right to form a union without fear of intimidation and recrimination,” said Teamsters Package Division Director Ken Hall. “They deserve the opportunity to meet with the company on a level playing field and bargain over their terms and conditions of employment. These employees made the company what it is today and it is fundamentally wrong for FedEx to force them to shoulder the burden of the new economic realities facing the company.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Click here to read the full BRC report.