How do Ground employees delivering any Express packages negate the RLA status? Wasn't the RLA about preventing wildcat strikes by railroad workers because railroads were too important to national security to have constant disruptions? And when airlines came along they were included in the RLA for the same reason? So to prevent wildcat strikes they made an all encompassing union that must have a nationwide strike agreed upon by a majority vote of members. Isn't that how Express is operated today? Except they made it extremely, if not impossible, to unionize unlike the railroads. But how does the delivering of pkgs by a different opco negate the RLA status of Express? It's about an airline's importance to commerce, not who exactly is doing what at the frontline level. The RLA status is about keeping goods flowing but doesn't the company have the final say as to the best way to accomplish that?
Not defending FedEx, what they're doing sucks for Express employees. Sucks for Ground contractor employees too. UPS has an argument that the RLA gives FedEx an unfair advantage. But Express employees should've organized back in the 90's before Fred started passing money around to Congressmen. Instead topped out couriers were mollified with some nice raises and apparently thought the company was going back to its glory years. Every time this company has pushed employees to the breaking point it has gotten itself out of a jam by throwing some money at them. Then the process starts all over again. Except now it looks like they're going after the contractor model as the answer to all their profit prayers. If you can find something better you might consider a career change.
