FedEx Ally Corker Blocks Aviation Measure in Fight With UPS By John Hughes
March 6 (
Bloomberg) -- Senator Bob Corker, who represents FedEx Corp.’s home state of Tennessee, is blocking aviation- funding legislation over the prospect that language may be added later helping unions organize at the company.
Corker’s action extends a years-long fight in Washington between the mostly non-union FedEx and its unionized rival United Parcel Service Inc. over how workers at both companies should be treated under U.S. labor laws. The dispute is over a measure reauthorizing funds for the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We are supportive of the Senate FAA bill, but we have placed a hold until we can be assured that the controversial FedEx provision will not be included in the final legislation,” Laura Lefler Herzog, a spokeswoman for Corker, a Republican, said today in an e-mailed statement.
A version of the $53.5 billion measure passed by the House last year would place the FedEx workers under the same federal labor law that covers UPS workers represented by the Teamsters union. That law lets workers vote locally to join unions rather than being forced to conduct a national union election. .........(more)
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