Congress Must Stand Up to FedEx and Pass FAA ReauthorizationCongress has voted to extend the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Bill for another three months, delaying important job creation and safety provisions and a key measure to close the FedEx loophole giving the company special status.
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa is urging Congress to stand up to FedEx, which has been blocking passage of the legislation. The extension, to December 31, was passed by the House and Senate on Thursday.
“Congress must address the issue of fairness when it comes to FedEx’s special treatment that allows it to treat its truck drivers as airline workers,” Hoffa said.
The two senators from Tennessee, at the behest of Memphis-based FedEx (NYSE:FDX), have been threatening a filibuster to block the provision in the bill closing the FedEx loophole.
“Congress cannot bow to the wishes of one company and hold up this legislation because FedEx wants to keep its special status,” said Teamsters Package Division Director and International Vice President Ken Hall.
The Express Carrier Employee Protection Act in the FAA Reauthorization Bill will end the special treatment that FedEx lobbyists won in 1996. The measure would establish one set of rules for all package delivery companies. The provision is in the House-passed version of the FAA Reauthorization Bill, which also includes important safety measures for the traveling public and the industry, and would create more than 125,000 new jobs each year.
FedEx Express is the only freight and package delivery company in the United States allowed to classify truck drivers, sorters, loaders and unloaders as airline workers. More than 90,000 FedEx Express employees who never even touch an airplane are treated as airline workers under the Railway Labor Act. Truck drivers, sorters, loaders and unloaders at small businesses, UPS and every other freight and package delivery company in the United States are under the National Labor Relations Act.
Go to
www.FedExDriversArentPilots.com to get the facts.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Management May Have Forgotten But The Watch Dogs Haven't
NATIONAL TRUCK DRIVER
APPRECIATION WEEK
September 19-25, 2010
The FedEx Watch Dog would like to tell every employee of FedEx Freight and National that they are the Best in this Industry and no one can take that away from us!
God Bless You All and be strong through these rough " Changes"
APPRECIATION WEEK
September 19-25, 2010
The FedEx Watch Dog would like to tell every employee of FedEx Freight and National that they are the Best in this Industry and no one can take that away from us!
God Bless You All and be strong through these rough " Changes"
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Teamsters Canada President Bob Bouvier talks to all FedEx workers about the new UPS contract
Teamsters Canada President Bob Bouvier talks to all FedEx Workers in this new video.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Know Your Rights
FedEx Freight has access to a wide variety of anti-union material from many sources. The typical anti-union campaign of secret identity of pretend employees on blog site creating activities where you can expect confusion, coercion and intimidation to keep you from becoming a union. Lies are usually out front. FedEx will use anti-union consultants or employees to tell flat-out lies and put out misinformation and statements about the Teamsters every step of the way to try and convince you that forming a union is a bad deal for you. Or have you heard this one? "We'll have to close down and move elsewhere if the union gets in here" or "We will no longer afford to be in business". The list goes on with what coerce employee tell other employees. All this rhetoric, while FedEx rake in millions of dollars in profits. FedEx corporate will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure you stay " union free". When was the last time FedEx corporate cared so much about your well-being except when you decided to look into forming a union? There have been numerous cases where some service centers will go to the edge or break the law just to prevent you from forming a union. Know your rights and keep good notes and copies of company propaganda and threats. Good documentation is very helpful if you and your co-workers need to file Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) against the employer for unlawful activity. One last thing do not stay under the radar, is better to stand up for your rights to form a union, if you stay under the radar you do not have protection under the National Labor Relation Act.
Sincerely
Joe Nuño
Sincerely
Joe Nuño
Monday, September 6, 2010
Express Misclassification
David Bensman and Molly Greenberg | September 6, 2010
FedEx offers another example where the Obama administration's effort to improve job quality is being undermined by an executive agency -- in this case, the Department of Defense. While a joint task force made up of the Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service has been established to crack down on worker misclassification, a practice of which the FedEx Ground division has been repeatedly found guilty, the Department of Defense continues to award FedEx huge contracts.
For years, FedEx's ground-delivery system has saved money and resisted unionization by disguising its drivers as contractors or temps -- something that is illegal under labor law. In the most recent court decision against FedEx, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Miller found in May that delivery drivers were employees under the Illinois Wage Act in everything but name. They were required to buy or lease trucks that met company specifications, pay for the company logo to be painted on their trucks, and dress in company uniforms, down to the color of their socks and shoes. They made pickups and deliveries on routes assigned by the company, were barred from using their trucks to haul loads for other companies, and had to park their trucks in company-assigned spaces.
The court found that FedEx Ground misclassified its drivers as independent contractors as an illegal means to avoid paying state unemployment insurance and workers' compensation insurance. Judge Miller's ruling was significant because it is the first in a multidistrict class-action suit filed on behalf of 27,000 current and former FedEx Ground drivers in 20 states. Rulings on additional suits are expected later this year. The ruling follows a 2008 decision by the California Supreme Court, which upheld a trial-court decision in Estrada v. Fedex Ground Systems, Incorporated, finding that FedEx Ground drivers were employees, not independent contractors. In denying FedEx's appeal, the California court found that "the drivers look like FedEx employees, act like FedEx employees, are paid like FedEx employees, and receive many employee benefits."
Court rulings like these would seem to make FedEx a prime example of the worker misclassification on which the Obama administration promised to crack down when it created a joint IRS-Labor Department task force that will audit 6,000 companies over the next three years to determine whether they are illegally misclassifying their employees as independent contractors, and, in the process, failing to pay Social Security, unemployment-insurance, and workers' compensation taxes as well as denying workers the protection of federal and state labor laws.
Yet according to the Federal Procurement Data System, in 2009, FedEx received $1.5 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense for "Charter Programs Team Arrangement." Why is the Obama administration rewarding the very companies that are defying its efforts to enforce labor law?
Using Legislation and Executive Authority
Read the full article
FedEx offers another example where the Obama administration's effort to improve job quality is being undermined by an executive agency -- in this case, the Department of Defense. While a joint task force made up of the Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service has been established to crack down on worker misclassification, a practice of which the FedEx Ground division has been repeatedly found guilty, the Department of Defense continues to award FedEx huge contracts.
For years, FedEx's ground-delivery system has saved money and resisted unionization by disguising its drivers as contractors or temps -- something that is illegal under labor law. In the most recent court decision against FedEx, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Miller found in May that delivery drivers were employees under the Illinois Wage Act in everything but name. They were required to buy or lease trucks that met company specifications, pay for the company logo to be painted on their trucks, and dress in company uniforms, down to the color of their socks and shoes. They made pickups and deliveries on routes assigned by the company, were barred from using their trucks to haul loads for other companies, and had to park their trucks in company-assigned spaces.
The court found that FedEx Ground misclassified its drivers as independent contractors as an illegal means to avoid paying state unemployment insurance and workers' compensation insurance. Judge Miller's ruling was significant because it is the first in a multidistrict class-action suit filed on behalf of 27,000 current and former FedEx Ground drivers in 20 states. Rulings on additional suits are expected later this year. The ruling follows a 2008 decision by the California Supreme Court, which upheld a trial-court decision in Estrada v. Fedex Ground Systems, Incorporated, finding that FedEx Ground drivers were employees, not independent contractors. In denying FedEx's appeal, the California court found that "the drivers look like FedEx employees, act like FedEx employees, are paid like FedEx employees, and receive many employee benefits."
Court rulings like these would seem to make FedEx a prime example of the worker misclassification on which the Obama administration promised to crack down when it created a joint IRS-Labor Department task force that will audit 6,000 companies over the next three years to determine whether they are illegally misclassifying their employees as independent contractors, and, in the process, failing to pay Social Security, unemployment-insurance, and workers' compensation taxes as well as denying workers the protection of federal and state labor laws.
Yet according to the Federal Procurement Data System, in 2009, FedEx received $1.5 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense for "Charter Programs Team Arrangement." Why is the Obama administration rewarding the very companies that are defying its efforts to enforce labor law?
Using Legislation and Executive Authority
Read the full article
The History of Labor Day
Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co founder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
The First Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "working men's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
Resource: U.S. Department of Labor at, www.dol.gov
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co founder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
The First Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "working men's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
Resource: U.S. Department of Labor at, www.dol.gov
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
p CEO'S HAVE CONTRACTS (LET US PAY ATTENTION RED SHIRTS AND PETS)
Top CEO’s have contracts; they have their demands for
the next five years; just like a Teamster contract.
This pass weekend I attended an arbitration class and the
instructor was an arbitrator. I ask some questions
regarding top CEO’s and top managements having labor
contracts; and the teacher said they had to arbitrate
for nonunion high ranking managements violation of
their labor contracts.
So what does this tell us? That they have their set
standards, their demands and no handbooks just a
contract, and when their positions and contracts are
being revised by top CEO’s, The CEO board members
gather up and discuss the demands of a top management
position; and the way the board members agreed on
contract is by voting.
As a future member of the Teamster we ask for a
contract with demands and fairness, a better pension
plan per hour (a Western conference pension plan), a
better medical benefit plan per hour, and medical
retirements.
So why is it o.k for top management to have labor
contracts and arbitration for disputing their
violations of the contract? And also they have
democracy votes, and the employees does not have any
Rights; without a Teamsters contract we stand alone.
__________________
the next five years; just like a Teamster contract.
This pass weekend I attended an arbitration class and the
instructor was an arbitrator. I ask some questions
regarding top CEO’s and top managements having labor
contracts; and the teacher said they had to arbitrate
for nonunion high ranking managements violation of
their labor contracts.
So what does this tell us? That they have their set
standards, their demands and no handbooks just a
contract, and when their positions and contracts are
being revised by top CEO’s, The CEO board members
gather up and discuss the demands of a top management
position; and the way the board members agreed on
contract is by voting.
As a future member of the Teamster we ask for a
contract with demands and fairness, a better pension
plan per hour (a Western conference pension plan), a
better medical benefit plan per hour, and medical
retirements.
So why is it o.k for top management to have labor
contracts and arbitration for disputing their
violations of the contract? And also they have
democracy votes, and the employees does not have any
Rights; without a Teamsters contract we stand alone.
__________________
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