Article Last Updated: 08/11/2007 01:54:01 PM MDT
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A FedEx employee unloads a delivery truck in New York this... (Aaron
Rountree/Bloomberg News)
Rountree/Bloomberg News)
The court is weighing suits filed by 150 independent contract drivers who say they are treated as full-time employees and should be paid as such. Limiting the FedEx ground-delivery unit's use of contractors may wreck its chances of gaining on larger rival UPS. The unit helped FedEx take as much as 19 percent of the ground-delivery market, while UPS has fallen from 82 percent to 70 percent in the past decade.
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Losing the battle could flatten the company's model of using workers who are self-employed and don't get benefits or paid time off. FedÂEx may have to buy as many as 15,000 drivers' trucks for $45,000 apiece. That $630 million bill could jump even higher if health care, pension costs and back pay are added.
''Treating any particular class of workers as independent contractors is, in many ways, an all-or-nothing proposition,'' said Carey Bartell, a labor lawyer at Reed Smith in Chicago. ''If you're right, you avoid certain expense and hassle. If you're wrong, however, you can lose big.''
The FedEx cases are before a federal judge in South Bend, who will decide after a hearing later this month whether the claims of contractors from 29 states should be combined in a single lawsuit. If the suit goes forward, the
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court will decide if the law allows for making the jobs full-time.
FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said the drivers' trucks aren't all worth $45,000 and potential damages shouldn't be based on that amount.
The lawsuits seek unspecified damages, including back pay, the cost of buying or leasing trucks and renting uniforms and equipment.
The lawsuit is one of several disputes involving the company and the Teamsters union. On July 24, a former FedEx contract driver selected by the union went to a congressional committee to testify about working conditions.
FedEx, which has 280,000 employees, provided the court in Indiana with e-mail messages between Teamsters officials and lawyers that purport to show the unions are driving the lawsuits.
David Welker, a Teamsters' campaign coordinator for the parcel and small-package division, said there is a two-front battle for workers' rights in Congress and in court.
To obtain permission to sue on behalf of all 15,000 drivers, the workers must show their cases have common facts and legal issues. To win the lawsuit, they must prove that FedEx exerts the same amount of control over the contractors as regular employees in areas such as work schedules and appearance.
Some drivers say that by the time they deduct costs that include fuel, maintenance and paying for replacement drivers when they are sick or on vacation, they clear only about $30,000 after being paid $75,000 by FedEx.
Not all drivers favor full-time status. FedEx claims that only a fraction of the 15,000 contractors are critical of the system.
FedEx lost a similar case in California, where a state court in Los Angeles ruled that the company owes 200 drivers $5.3 million in expenses. The case is being appealed. Gannett Co. won a claim last year when newspaper carriers in Kentucky lost a bid to have the National Labor Relations Board classify them as full-time employees.
The FedEx ground unit's contractor model has broadened the company's appeal to small businesses, which historically relied on UPS, said Donald Broughton, an A.G. Edwards & Sons analyst in St. Louis.
The company's system contrasts with that of UPS, the largest employer of Teamsters union members. UPS employs its drivers full-time and owns the trucks.
''FedEx Ground can grow faster in the contractor model because capital costs are lower with contractors buying the trucks,'' Broughton said.
It looks like my generation (I'm 21) is about as pro-union as any, and definitely better than people in the 30-45 bracket, who, IIRC, are the most anti-union. Passing the EFCA will see a lot of growth in unions, particularly in people in my age group as a result of the difference in how people feel about unions, I think. Tens of millions of new union members in the decade after it's passed, I'm thinking.
dockworker gar.. said...
i am from gar and i was there for the meeting and to see that is good to see the reddaway contract,know i have something to show the dockworker that the teamsters or telling the truth and management are lairs.. i we keep you post it..
August 12, 2007 10:42 PM
Unions are democracy at work, nothing more, and emphatically, nothing less.
all we have to do is maintain the our wokers rights that those who came before us already won for us!!
think that if anything, more people are union members now than ever before. And that unions are stronger now than at anytime in the past. And it's that disconnect between reality and perception that makes it possible for them to swallow the company line about the state of organized labor in America.
I know that Change to Win is on a roll, and you guys in the Teamsters have done some very impressive work like with the doctors in New Jersey, and of course the continuing campaign at Fed Ex.
That's something to write about. Unionzing Fedex would be a significant victory, and would leave DHL as the lone man out.
Unions were started to help labor.
The first unions were based around crafts, which in the 1800s were highly profitable businesses.
As the labor movement matured, and industrialization flourished, unions were formed by workers in those fields -- rail roads, mines, and, yes, Teamsters (the drivers who drove teams of horses).
Today, Teamsters represent professors, airline pilots, mechanics, school principals, city attorneys, even doctors are Teamsters -- these are hardly low-skilled fungible positions.
In fact, the Teamsters and other Change to Win Unions are focused on the service sector because the service sector is growing. Most of the positions our workers hold are service jobs. And yes, we represent manufacturing workers too.
Like the Teamsters, many unions like the UAW and steelworkers, represent workers in a variety of fields besides manufacturing.
But as we continue to spread our wings into new industries and new segments of the workforce, we are dog piled by so called "progressive" companies that quickly turn anti-union when their workers want a pension, health care or better benefits. Cases in point: American Apparel and Apple and that's just the As.
Unfortunately, a lot of people share your view because they believe the BS fed to them by the corporate (advertiser)-controlled MSM.
Unions made the effort, are making the effort and will continue to make the effort. But we need an environment that is fair and we need a better informed public.
FedEx Judge Approves $55 Million Worker Settlement (Update1)
By Laurence Viele Davidson and David Mildenberg
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- FedEx Corp., the world's largest air-cargo carrier, received final approval to pay almost $55 million to end a class-action discrimination lawsuit on behalf of black and Hispanic workers at its FedEx Express unit.
In an order signed yesterday and posted on the court's Web site today, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco approved the settlement covering 20,000 checker-sorters, customer service agents, freight handlers and other workers. Derrick Satchell and eight other employees sued the unit in 2003, claiming they were denied promotions and raises equal to those given white colleagues.
FedEx dropped its requirement for candidates for courier jobs to pass a map-reading, listening, reading and sorting skills test after the suit was filed, said spokeswoman Sally Davenport. Under the agreement, FedEx will change its promotion practices and will be monitored by a court-appointed special master.
``We are gratified that the Court granted final approval of the settlement which draws this matter to a close and allows the company to move forward and avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation,'' Larry Brown, senior vice president and chief human resources officer for FedEx Express, said in a statement.
The court also approved the payment of $15 million in attorney fees and costs from the settlement proceeds, attorney Waukeen McCoy, who was co-lead counsel for the class, said in a phone interview.
Clients' Interests
``We're definitely very happy that the court believed we acted in the best interests of the clients to get the matter resolved,'' said McCoy, the principal of the Law Offices of Waukeen Q. McCoy in San Francisco.
In April, the parties received preliminary approval of the agreement after a year of court-ordered negotiations.
The company denied all allegations of discrimination.
Under the proposed settlement, named class representatives will receive as much as $30,000 each and 18 other people will get $5,000 each for the time they spent giving affidavits and depositions to lawyers on both sides.
Shares of Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx fell 90 cents to $106.67 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today.
The FedEx Express unit had sales of $22.7 billion, out of companywide total of $35.2 billion, for the fiscal year ended May 31.
The case is Satchell v. FedEx Express, 03cv02659, U.S. Northern District of California (San Francisco).
To contact the reporters on this story: Laurence Viele Davidson in Atlanta at lviele@bloomberg.net ; David Mildenberg in Atlanta at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net .
Thanks for pointing out this too often overlooked fact.
To the Average American, costs of living has risen dramatically in the last 5 years. Grocery prices have doubled. Gas prices have almost doubled. Health care costs are out of control. Energy prices....
The inflation index is a joke indeed.
We need a union now!!!
What is the rationale, For exempting fedex supervisor from being able to organize a union? I understand the rationale from the corporations standpoint, screw the worker, but from the manager's standpoint. And why would someone who is creating intellectual property be exempt. Usually the people creating the intellectual property at a corporation do not recieve any royalaties. A plaque yes, money no,or maybe yes.
Freedom and Brotherhood
Our love of individual freedom is still what defines us as Americans, but we are also rediscovering the lost element of community and sacrifice that also used to define us.
Having Teamster power gives us a voice in the workplace!!!
"It is not be cause things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." Seneca
“We know Teamsters are using the web every day to talk to friends and to each other. And they’re using technology more, too. So we are building an army of e-activists, whose voices are being heard on Capitol Hill and at work sites across the country,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa.
By joining Teamsters Take Action and signing on with our social networking sites, members can keep up with the latest union news and actions. And by sharing calls to action with friends and family, members can help amplify our Teamster power.
“Think about it,” Hoffa said. “We have 1.4 million members. Even if a fraction of them sign up, we’d have thousands of members online ready to take action in a moment’s notice. If they ask their friends and family to join us in protecting jobs or taking a stand on a critical issue, we can easily add millions of voices to our own. That’s a lot of power—power that can make things happen.”
There’s another benefit, too. By organizing on public networking sites, we are able to show through words, photos and videos what being a Teamster is all about, educating nonunion workers and the rest of the nation about the benefits of organized labor.
In speaking with a lot of local and international unions throughout my work week, I have to tell you that among many top priorities is to make the Internet a tool to organize, campaign, mobilize, and of course spread news and views. Your article should be / could be a pamphlet piece for this argument.
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