House Provision Could Cost FedEx Millions, Stall Deliveries

Federal Express is preparing to launch a multimillion dollar public-affairs campaign to derail House-passed legislation that would put the airline-based freight company under labor rules governing United Parcel Service, FedEx's trucking-based competitor. Worried that its costs could surge and overnight deliveries could be stalled by wildcat strikes if the changes are put into place, FedEx on Tuesday is expected to lay out a multimedia campaign using the Internet, TV, and paid advertising.

At issue is a provision in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that would make it easier for FedEx drivers to be organized by the Teamsters. The House OK'd the bill largely on party lines. Its fate in the Senate is in doubt. In the past, FedEx has killed the provision that would remove the company's drivers from the Railway Labor Act's jurisdiction, which requires companywide labor-organizing votes, and put them under the National Labor Relations Act, which lets unions organize on a location-by-location basis. FedEx argues that the RLA is more appropriate because the company is jet based, and Congress in the past has worried about letting strikes impact aviation-based commerce—especially critical today when internationally traded products and medical supplies and even body parts travel on overnight flights.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/06/04/house-provision-could-cost-fedex-millions-stall-deliveries.html