FedEx Campaign Delivers Controversy

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

FedEx's new "multimillion-dollar marketing campaign" doesn't tout the delivery company's service or speed. It accuses rival United Parcel Service (UPS) of receiving a government bailout. FedEx's website BrownBailout.com claims UPS is "quietly seeking a Congressional bailout designed to limit competition for overnight deliveries." One marketing executive said the campaign may backfire on FedEx, as "this is clearly not a bailout as most consumers and business people would define it, which is writing a check to a troubled business." At issue is "a provision in a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill" that would reclassify some FedEx employees under the National Labor Relations Act, making it easier for them to form unions. UPS, which is "heavily unionized," is already classified under the Act. UPS spokesman Malcolm Berkley said that FedEx "uses the fact of the labor law it is currently under inappropriately as a lever when talking to UPS customers, particularly when we're negotiating our contracts." UPS isn't responding to the FedEx campaign, but the Teamsters union, which represents 240,000 UPS workers, is. A Teamsters press release accuses FedEx CEO Fred Smith of spending "millions of dollars on misleading ad campaigns and high-priced lobbyists [rather] than allow[ing] workers a real chance to form a union."

Main Source: 
New York Times, June 9, 2009
Topics: 
U.S. Congress
Economy
Labor

Comments

Anonymous replied on

FedEx has made a huge PR mistake. What huge "respectable" corporation attacks their competitor in such a immature, slanderous way? They are spending millions of dollars on this silly smear campaign when they had to cut their salaried workers compensation by 5%. If I worked for FedEx, I would wonder why they had to cut my pay when they had millions of dollars laying around for a PR experiment.

UPS is larger, more financially sound, and is continuously rated higher than FedEx in industry surveys. They would never stoop to this pathetic level and will come out the winner. They are also well versed in the NLRA, which it appears FedEx would rather spend the time better used preparing for the inevitable to build slanderous websites and whiteboard spoofs. FedEx ee's might as well prepare for more than a 5% pay cut in the long run...

Advantage - UPS.

Dlev replied on

Well I have worked for Fed Ex for over 25 years and I must say it has been a very good experience. What is troubling for me in all this is the bottom line of the companies at issue here. Afterall, isn`t that what business is all about? Profits, customer service and taking care of your people?

Now, I don`t have the exact numbers in front of me but No one will argue that UPS`S revenues far exceed FED EX`S. So, with that in moind why would UPS be behind a campaign to :level the playing field" in the package delievering competition? It makes no sense.

As far as pay cuts for employees...... I would rather have a pay cut now and STILL RECIEVE MY PENSION, than get pay raises and have the Teamsters say, uh oh.....WE DON`T KNOW WHER YOUR MONEY IS!!!

THINK THAT CAN`T HAPPEN? ASK SOME OTHER UNIONIZED COMPANIES!

I have nothing against UPS or it`s employees, however, once pro-union, as a 25 1/2 year Fed Ex employee, I can do without unions, for the sake of my company and my PENSION!

Anonymous replied on

At the sake of sounding disparaging, is Fred Smith senile? What can they possibly be thinking? This definitely gives one the impression UPS is the adult and FedEx is the whining child. This will damage FedEx’s brand for years to come. I suspect there is more of this on the horizon as they have taken the path, all on board, so they will self-congratulate each other into a very precarious market position. UPS is wise to hold themselves above the fray and will reap the rewards of that approach by brand improvement and most likely new customers. Time for Fred to go? I think so.

Anonymous replied on

sounds like a UPS fan, employee, or teamster drone wrote these poorly chosen words. ask yourself who, other than UPS or Teamsters, benefits from putting FedEx Express under the NLRA??? It's definitely not the consumer nor the industry. This smells of payback for political contributions to sensible people...

Nunuv Yerbizness replied on

This kind of campaign is patently inane. Since I'm disabled, and rely on home delivery for a lot of my buying, I'm going to go out of my way to avoid having shippers send me goods via Federal Express. I realize that this doesn't have as much impact as if I were the owner of an Amazon.com, it's all I can do in my own small way.

scdaddyo replied on

After reading this there is certainly a lot of confusion and misinformation about this.

Consider these points:

NLRA already covers some FedEx operating companies…
FedEx LTL operating companies are already under the NLRA. It makes sense given they are a wholly owned end-to-end trucking network.

Differences…
FedEx Express is the largest Airline in the world that uses trucks for it’s pick up and last leg. FedEx Ground is a franchised delivery service.

The Ground Corporation only owns the line-haul, which is the smallest portion of the business, the rest is entirely independently owned.

Unlike both of these operating companies UPS is the largest end-to-end trucking company in the world. UPS owns every part of their network and is a true trucking company.

Who benefits….
Who, other than UPS or the Teamsters, benefits by putting the largest Airline in the World under the NLRA?

Teamsters…
Does anyone remember what happened between August 4th and 19th of 1997 when the Teamsters strike shut down UPS. It crippled the country and people were throwing packages over the fence at FedEx stations hoping that their packages would be delivered.

Should NLRA be imposed on FedEx the Teamsters will make unionizing FedEx a top priority. Should unionization efforts not succeed at first they will keep their unionized drivers from filling open positions at FedEx.

What’s next…
If the NLRA incorporates Airlines and Franchised businesses what’s next? Will it go after ocean freight just because they too offer delivery from the port to the final leg using a truck?

Anonymous replied on

Who benefits? Maybe the employees because they will be given the right to choose in all this.

scdaddyo replied on

Employees at FedEx already have choices. They are higher paid, and own company stock. It is clearly an entrepreneurial approach instead of being union run drones.

Anonymous replied on

fedex supervisors are the only ones allowed to own stock regular hourlys are not fedex people need this as much as our country does ups and fedex do exactly the same thing but fedex employees get the shaft

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