I came across an interesting piece of news via DenverBrown Blog. Apparently, FedEx is crying about proposed changes to the Railway Labor Act that would level the playing field between them and other shipping companies like UPS. Apparently FedEx considers it a “bailout” for UPS that legislators are considering calling FedEx what it really is: a delivery company.
You see, for years FedEx has been pretending to be an airline. This masquerade has made it easy for them to avoid unionization of the majority of their workforce who have nothing to do with the airline operations.
On the propaganda website they’ve set up to spread their lies and distortions (brownbailout.com), they do a lot of clever things: they persistently refer to themselves as an “airline” and to UPS as a “trucking company.” Both characterizations are less than genuine.
The fact is FedEx and UPS engage in the same basic core business. Both operate substantial airlines to facilitate their core business, which is package delivery. But FedEx wants the world — or at least Congress — to believe that what they do is significantly different from what UPS does. They cry that if the changes to the Railway Act go through, they will no longer be able to offer competitive services.
In other words, FedEx is openly admitting that they’re incapable of doing what UPS has done for years: make a profit with a unionized workforce. They apparently don’t believe their management teams can cope with the same situation UPS has managed for years. I don’t normally hold up UPS management as beacons of unparalleled genius, but apparently the folks at FedEx see them that way.
FedEx claims it can’t run a profitable, efficient business if it has to operate on the same level as other delivery companies. FedEx is claiming that for them to lose that crutch amounts to a bailout for UPS, but what they’re hoping you won’t notice is that their fake status has been bailing them out for years.
Essentially, with their bogus “airline” classification under the Railway Labor Act, FedEx has been riding with training wheels since birth. Asking them to take off the training wheels isn’t a “bailout” to UPS; it’s just common sense — at some point the execs at FedEx need to prove they’re capable of running their business without artificial advantages.
If you want to help FedEx take off the training wheels, use the “Write to Congress” page to let your governmental representatives know the Railway Labor Act revisions need to pass, and that FedEx has to be put on a level playing field with other delivery companies at long last.
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Filed under: UPS, unionism
