Smith's Letter to All Express Employees

[MrFedEx]

There's been a lot of talk on here about how Fred has the RLA "in the bag" and that his lobbyists have assured him of victory on the RLA. OK, so why did he send out the "help me" letter to all employees dated 3-18-10? When I got mine last night I was so ticked that I fired-off an expletive-laced response that got shot down by the mods. Hopefully, this is mild enough to get posted.

 

[edd_tv]

so are you gonna post it? im anxious to see what the letter says...

 

[upsyo]

Lets See It!!!!

 

[SmithBarney]

I knew I should have posted it...before I ripped it up and trashed it.
Doesn't matter though, the Fedex.com internal website posted today says that the bill passed without the language in it.

 

[Ms.PacMan]

I knew I should have posted it...before I ripped it up and trashed it.
Doesn't matter though, the Fedex.com internal website posted today says that the bill passed without the language in it.

The Senate passed the bill without the language in it. The House has the same bill that includes the RLA language. The two must be reconciled either including the RLA language in the Senate version or deleting it in the House version.

 

[fxdwg]

The Senate passed its version of the FAA bill, without the Express Carrier amendment. The House and Senate versions of the legislation now need to be reconciled and the final bill must be voted on by both the House and Senate

 

[The Mayor]

This is all true. A committee must be formed for both the House and the Senate to determine which version of the bill/current legislation of HR 915 will be voted on. The section that we are all interested in is if Section 806 that includes the Express carrier language will be intact or not. Since the funding of the FAA has extended Federal Funding again until June of this year, we all should not expect to see anything until sometime around then in regards to a vote on the bill regardless of which version is adopted. However; historically speaking, when this type of instance occurs, usually the Senate version of the bill is re-introduced and voted on. If this is the case, then it will not include the language. This is why it is very important that "we the people" the employees should voice our opinions now. If you want to be heard, then pick up the phone and make a call or write a letter to your congressman and Senator.

Some people at my station as well as others on this site have expressed concern about if it does pass and they are asked to sign a union card that they will be put on a "manager's watch list" or have negative reprecautions because of their decision. Well, let me just say this. Under Federal Law, and worker's rights acts, employees have the choice and decision to decide whether or not they want to have 3rd party representation. If any such type of harrassment did occur, there would be and could have the chance of filing a huge class action law suit. So, don't be intimidated! Stand up for your rights.

 

[FedEx courier]

This is all true. A committee must be formed for both the House and the Senate to determine which version of the bill/current legislation of HR 915 will be voted on. The section that we are all interested in is if Section 806 that includes the Express carrier language will be intact or not. Since the funding of the FAA has extended Federal Funding again until June of this year, we all should not expect to see anything until sometime around then in regards to a vote on the bill regardless of which version is adopted. However; historically speaking, when this type of instance occurs, usually the Senate version of the bill is re-introduced and voted on. If this is the case, then it will not include the language. This is why it is very important that "we the people" the employees should voice our opinions now. If you want to be heard, then pick up the phone and make a call or write a letter to your congressman and Senator.

Some people at my station as well as others on this site have expressed concern about if it does pass and they are asked to sign a union card that they will be put on a "manager's watch list" or have negative reprecautions because of their decision. Well, let me just say this. Under Federal Law, and worker's rights acts, employees have the choice and decision to decide whether or not they want to have 3rd party representation. If any such type of harrassment did occur, there would be and could have the chance of filing a huge class action law suit. So, don't be intimidated! Stand up for your rights.

Do the Senate and House vote on the final bill in a joint session? All the info I found said that the Senate could not pass a Bill this large by itself. I also thought that since this originated in the House the Senate could not pass a version of this by themselves. I could be wrong though.

 

[FedEx courier]

I was also wondering if the House and Senate do vote in a joint session and if all the votes carry equal weight to one another. Because if I'm not mistaken there are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the U.S. Senate. The house passed the bill by a vote of 277 to 136 with section 806 in it. Seems if a joint vote were put up in the way I said before it would easily pass.

 

[vantexan]

Do the Senate and House vote on the final bill in a joint session? All the info I found said that the Senate could not pass a Bill this large by itself. I also thought that since this originated in the House the Senate could not pass a version of this by themselves. I could be wrong though.

Not a joint session. A joint committee, members from the House and Senate, will hammer out a final bill. Then both the House and Senate will seperatly vote on the final bill, and if it passes both votes it will go to the President. First we have to see if the FedEx language makes it into the final bill while in committee. If it doesn't then you will know that the Democrats were bought off. They are in the majority so should come out of committee but if it doesn't then FedEx was successful with major arm twisting. If it comes out of committee should easily pass the House. We'll see if it matters enough to Senate Republicans to filibuster it. If not Obama should sign it into law fairly quickly after final vote. Since the company sent us that letter they mustn't be confident they'll stop it.

 

[The Mayor]

Not a joint session. A joint committee, members from the House and Senate, will hammer out a final bill. Then both the House and Senate will seperatly vote on the final bill, and if it passes both votes it will go to the President. First we have to see if the FedEx language makes it into the final bill while in committee. If it doesn't then you will know that the Democrats were bought off. They are in the majority so should come out of committee but if it doesn't then FedEx was successful with major arm twisting. If it comes out of committee should easily pass the House. We'll see if it matters enough to Senate Republicans to filibuster it. If not Obama should sign it into law fairly quickly after final vote. Since the company sent us that letter they mustn't be confident they'll stop it.

Here's one for everybody. We had a meeting this a.m. with our district director. Of course, he had his bullet points all lined up for the meeting and talked about SFA, the health bill, and of course the FAA legislation with his pom poms on. He even had the letter that uncle fred sent.

So, I was feeling particular fiesty this a.m. and asked the question with the pink elephant in the room. "Is Fed Ex only worried about changing its labor status or worried about the union?" I said. His response was that it would just make it easier for us to unionize. So, here's where I dropped the big one. "Then why doesn't our corporate management let us decide on or vote to choose if we want to become union under our current labor practice?"

Let's just say the room went so quiet and everyone's eyes got as big as saucers. His response.....there wasn't one. He didn't know what to say other than he felt that we didn't need a union or to conduct a vote either way because it would be disruptive to the company.

Is it me, or does anyone else seem to think that I just made the list?

 

[FedEx courier]

You nailed the big point! FedEx has nothing to worry about with this change if everyone believes they are so great, they have to have a majority of each station vote it. Their propaganda just doesn't make sense.

 

[quadro]

So, I was feeling particular fiesty this a.m. and asked the question with the pink elephant in the room. "Is Fed Ex only worried about changing its labor status or worried about the union?" I said. His response was that it would just make it easier for us to unionize. So, here's where I dropped the big one. "Then why doesn't our corporate management let us decide on or vote to choose if we want to become union under our current labor practice?"

I call B.S. Even I know the answer to that and I'm sure a director would know the answer. Our current labor practice does allow us to become union if we want.

 

[FedEx courier]

Yeah, you could organize your station and contact every other station in the country and openly organize them also. Surely there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing that. I mean I'm sure your management would stand by and watch and not try to fire you or anything. Since you totally have the freedom to organize right now under the RLA. FedEx is using the RLA so that their employees have no option to unionize. They know that their employees can't organize such a drive and the company would easily be able to weed any such employees out. I'm going to call B.S. on your smokescreen B.S.

 

[quadro]

Yeah, you could organize your station and contact every other station in the country and openly organize them also. Surely there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing that. I mean I'm sure your management would stand by and watch and not try to fire you or anything. Since you totally have the freedom to organize right now under the RLA. FedEx is using the RLA so that their employees have no option to unionize. They know that their employees can't organize such a drive and the company would easily be able to weed any such employees out. I'm going to call B.S. on your smokescreen B.S.

I didn't say it would be easy; however, clearly RLA employees can and do get represented as is evidenced by the percentage of RLA employees that are unionized. I was simply calling B.S. on The Mayor's statement that a director couldn't answer a question of why corp management won't let us decide, which in and of itself isn't accurate.

 

[FedEx courier]

I think he may have been implying that they could sponsor a vote and let the employees decide. He could have meant something else, I'm not completely sure.

 

[Broke]

I didn't say it would be easy; however, clearly RLA employees can and do get represented as is evidenced by the percentage of RLA employees that are unionized. I was simply calling B.S. on The Mayor's statement that a director couldn't answer a question of why corp management won't let us decide, which in and of itself isn't accurate.

Now, I'm going to call B.S. Can you name one other company besides Fedex that has over 100,000 employees classified under the railway labor act?? You and Fred can take your percentages and shove them up your you know what because in most cases there are only a couple thousand workers that have to be organized at once under the railway labor act.

 

[vantexan]

I didn't say it would be easy; however, clearly RLA employees can and do get represented as is evidenced by the percentage of RLA employees that are unionized. I was simply calling B.S. on The Mayor's statement that a director couldn't answer a question of why corp management won't let us decide, which in and of itself isn't accurate.

Under the RLA there has to be a vote by everyone. Much easier to organize if most employees are in a few locations, but very difficult spread out across the country. Pretty near impossible, otherwise FedEx wouldn't be fighting to keep us under the RLA. The NLRA however allows us to vote per each location. So per that letter to employees it's a valid point. Why not let all employees have a vote under the RLA, out in the open, let's see if the majority of employees are content and not in need of gov't intervention. Heck, make it a private poll, non-binding, to see where we stand. Put it on the SFA!

 

[Broke]

Under the RLA there has to be a vote by everyone. Much easier to organize if most employees are in a few locations, but very difficult spread out across the country. Pretty near impossible, otherwise FedEx wouldn't be fighting to keep us under the RLA. The NLRA however allows us to vote per each location. So per that letter to employees it's a valid point. Why not let all employees have a vote under the RLA, out in the open, let's see if the majority of employees are content and not in need of gov't intervention. Heck, make it a private poll, non-binding, to see where we stand. Put it on the SFA!

It just couldn't be done under the RLA, because Fred would just give better pay in the larger markets such as NYC, L.A., Houston while those of us at smaller locations continue to get the shaft. As far as putting it on the SFA, I highly doubt an accurate result would be given.

 

[The Mayor]

I call B.S. Even I know the answer to that and I'm sure a director would know the answer. Our current labor practice does allow us to become union if we want.

O.k., so I call A.H. on your B.S. First, you obviously were not even in the meeting so I don't see how you can see yourself trying to pull someone's card if you have no premise to go off of. Second, you don't know me other than from this site or what type of person I am. I tell it straight. Like it or not, you will know where you stand. Third, my reasoning for saying that he didn't know what to say or even have a response is because we all know that Fed Ex is strongly anti-union. I just think that I shocked everyone in the room (and him) by having the stones enough to ask our D.D. face to face about such a "delicate" subject.

Next, I know that (as well as I am sure he knows) that we could go union under the current labor laws. However, as others have stated here, that would be just short of the 2nd coming. You know (or should know) as well as I do that any employee just mentioning the word union has had tremendous negative ramifications. Employees in the past who have made mention were quarantined, placed on suspension, terminated, or had there lives made so miserable that they left the organization.

I find it very ironic though that now, all of a sudden since this large push has been going on that all of a sudden it is o.k. to discuss the current labor practices of the company and how they feel that we don't need it after 37 years because all has been going so well. Oh yeah, for who? Upper management who have raked us across the coals for the last 3 decades or the employees who can't even get a decent enough pay increase to keep up with the cost of inflation?

Even when 9-11 hit, that entire next year the company was crying broke and we didn't have any money even with the changes that we had to make to our aircraft by placing locking mechanisms on the doors, pilot self defense training, and federal hand gun regulations. Even while all of this was going on, we were still high on the hog pulling down double digit profit margins.

We even had our regional director in 2 months ago and after his visit, my attitude went even more into the toilet. He said that no matter what you do or how well you do it, it will never be enough. Well then, isn't that just effing great. Talk about being totally treated like poo and not being appreciated for the job we do every day. Oh boy, I can't wait til the next cook out.........