House panel opens door for Teamsters to organize FedEx workers

ShareThis

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this week made it easier for unions like the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to organize FedEx employees.
By changing the jurisdiction of how some employees can be organized -- from national to local bargaining units -- the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act that now goes to the House floor takes away provisions that made it difficult for FedEx drivers to join local unions.
The same language passed the House in 2007 but was never taken up by the Senate. Some industry observers say the provision stands a better chance of surviving with Democrats in control of both Congress and the White House.
Fed Ex spokesman Maury Lane said the company is "deeply disappointed" that the committee "voted to approve anti-competitive legislation that unfairly benefits one company -- the much larger (United Parcel Service). We strongly urge the House to reject this legislation before the inherent economic damage threatened by (Thursday's) vote becomes a reality."
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a member of the committee from Memphis, FedEx's world headquarters, objected to the language, saying that "to subject the number one commercial carrier in this country to a strike which the Railway Labor Act is designed to protect against" would be a mistake.
Cohen did not offer an amendment stripping the bill of the labor language as has been expected. Teamsters president James P. Hoffa circulated a letter earlier in the week seeking to kill any provision Cohen might introduce, saying the bill as written "corrects an injustice in the current law."
The Teamsters have unsuccessfully attempted to organize FedEx for years. UPS, whose drivers are largely represented by the Teamsters, supports the language because it would increase FedEx expenses and make it less competitive. Thousands of FedEx's 290,000 employees would be affected and some analysts say the company's expenses would increase 30 percent as a result of unionization.
Since FedEx was founded as an airline, it has been protected by the Railway Labor Act which covers railways and airlines with national labor contracts. UPS was founded as a ground-based courier and does not enjoy the exemption.
The language in Thursday's bill, pushed by Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., would clarify that employees of an "express carrier" would be under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act only if they are eligible for certification under Federal Aviation Administration rules, such as those for pilots and mechanics, and are performing that type of work. The Railway Labor Act allows unions to organize employees under a national contract, not in local bargaining units.
All other carrier employees, such as truck drivers, would be under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act and, by inference, could organize into local bargaining units, under the Oberstar language.
Cohen was joined by aviation subcommittee ranking member Rep. Thomas E. Petri, R-Wisc., and the Transportation Committee's ranking member, Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., both of whom said the FedEx provision gave them "heartburn."
"There's always Mylanta," responded Oberstar.
The bill will now go to the House floor and is likely to pass, as it did in 2007. However, Mica informed the committee that he is hearing the Senate may not even consider the measure for up to six months.
Cohen said after the markup that a delay would be unfortunate.
"Part of it's because of this provision," he said. "If we had a more streamlined bill, it could be done much quicker."

(Contact Bartholomew Sullivan of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., at sullivanb(at)shns.com.)