FedEx Workers Stage First-Ever Strike Ahead of Busy Holiday Season

FedEx Workers Stage First-Ever Strike Ahead of Busy Holiday Season
http://usuncut.com/resistance/fedex-workers-threaten-strike-holidays/
Kelley Davidson | November 10, 2015
FedEx has spent over $21 million to prevent truckers from unionizing.

On Monday, over 80 workers in the Gardena, California FedEx freight facility staged the first strike in FedEx’s 42-year history, and are now pushing for workers in other facilities to do the same. Complaints about pension, benefits, and union-busting led to the strike, which will affect deliveries the entire South Bay area and other regions. The workers say that the company has repeatedly violated their rights under federal labor laws.

FedEx is one of the most historically anti-union companies in America. Its administration spent years using complicated loopholes in the Railway Labor Act (RLA) to keep workers from unionizing, making it almost impossible for union organizers to distribute information to employees. Fred Smith, CEO and founder of the company, has remained vocally anti-union since the company’s inception, stating: “i did not intend to recognize any unions at Federal Express.”

The company began forcefully resisting unionization in the 1980’s, and freight facility managers often received pamphlets with titles like “Making Unions Unnecessary,” full of information on union avoidance. During one 15-month period, FedEx spent $21.1 millionlobbying against new rules that would have allowed truckers to unionize.

However, workers made some headway last year in Pennsylvania during the first successful FedEx union organization in history. A group of 47 workers voted to join Teamsters Local 107, stating that they were “tired of constantly changing unfair and unwritten work rules.”

Since FedEx’s transition from being governed by the rules of the RLA to the rules of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), union organizers report that FedEx facilities across the country are now guilty of violating workers legal union rights by still refusing to bargain with them.

“FedEx has done everything under the books to oppose workers’ right to organize,” the Teamsters union said in a public statement. This includes the use of intimidation tactics that are commonplace in anti-union companies, such as captive-audience anti-union meetings and putting pro-union workers under high levels of scrutiny.

FedEx Freight has called the Gardena strike a “coercive and potentially illegal activity,” but Teamsters Joint Council 42 — the union representing the Gardena workers — has rebuked those claims, reminding administrators of their legal obligation to the demands of unionized workers. FedEx’s confrontational public statement hasn’t stopped workers from planning further direct action and they intend to continue their strike throughout the holiday season if their demands are not met. This potentially nationwide strike could tarnish the company’s reputation and discourage shoppers from using the parcel service.

The workers in Gardena claim that this action is just the beginning, warning the company that their illegal activities must come to an end.