The UPS truck drivers’ union launched a digital advertising campaign Wednesday, pushing for Congress to change FedEx Express’ labor law coverage.
The web-based campaign mocks FedEx’s position with a 40-second video in which an actor impersonating company chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith pretends a toy truck can fly and a purple-clad driver “lands” a truck for refueling.
The campaign is designed to mobilize 1.4 million Teamsters and the public to urge Congress to put FedEx Express non-airline employees under the same law as UPS drivers. It centers on the website .
FedEx has been battling UPS over the issue for more than a year. Largely non-union FedEx Express is under the Railway Labor Act, while the Teamsters represents 254,000 UPS employees governed by the National Labor Relations Act.
The congressional action, part of an FAA reauthorization bill, would make it easier to unionize FedEx Express workers by putting most of them under the NLRA.
FedEx asserts its express drivers are integral to both an airline operation and an express delivery network and should be treated like airline and railroad employees.
UPS argues drivers and other employees doing similar work should be governed by the same labor law and contends FedEx has received special treatment.
“We think the timing’s right to really put the facts out and combat the propaganda that FedEx has been putting out for a little more than a year,” said Ken Hall, International Brotherhood of Teamsters vice president and package division director. Hall wouldn’t say how much the union is spending on the campaign.
“If you ask anyone on the street, ‘Do you think FedEx and UPS are the same kind of company?’, the answer is going to be yes,” Hall said. “A truck driver is a truck driver, and there’s no escaping that.”
FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said, “This new campaign is further evidence of how desperate the Teamsters are to help UPS secure a competitive bailout, while Americans across the country are making it clear that they have corporate bailout fatigue. UPS should abandon their anti-competitive bailout effort so that Americans can benefit from the important safety enhancements in the Senate version of the FAA reauthorization legislation.”
Hall blamed FedEx for holding up the FAA bill.
–Wayne Risher: 529-2874
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