Click here to see how your congressmen voted on the FAA Reauthorization bill. The bill passed on May 21st. The Senate has yet to take action on the bill.

We have talked about the “FedEx Special Deal” which misclassifies workers and has succeeded in placing many of our coworkers under improper labor law. Our legislation, the Express Carrier Employee Protection Act, would reclassify all those workers who are not licensed airmen, licensed aircraft maintenance technicians, and licensed aircraft dispatchers and place them under the jurisdiction of the NLRA.

We have heard a lot about two pending bills in Congress: the Express Carrier Employee Protection Act and the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Both are very important to workers in America and to labor constituents.

So far, legislation that would make it easier for FedEx Express workers to form a union remains intact! OnMarch 5, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the FAA Reauthorization Bill with the Express Carrier Employee Protection Act included.

Here is a letter that Memphis Sr. AMT Bret Alexander wrote to his congressman.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said late Wednesday FedEx Corp. intends to “blackmail Congress” by threatening to cancel a multi-billion dollar airplane contract order if its FedEx Express workers are allowed an easier path to unionization.

In another attempt by FedEx to deny its workers the right to organize, the company today leveled a challenge to legislators in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing that the company would cancel a $10 billion contract to purchase Boeing 777 planes if FedEx Express workers were moved under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

FedEx Corp. is threatening to cancel the purchase of billions of dollars worth of new Boeing Co. cargo planes if Congress passes a law that would make it easier for unions to organize at the package-delivery company.

A company spokesman said Tuesday that FedEx may cancel plans to buy as many as 30 new Boeing planes should Congress pass a bill that would remove truck drivers, couriers and other employees at FedEx's Express unit from the jurisdiction of the federal Railway Labor Act of 1926, the law which today also governs labor organizing at U.S. airlines.

FedEx could cancel contracts for $6.7 billion in American-made planes if Congress makes it easier for unions to organize the delivery giant's workers.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, the Memphis-based delivery company disclosed that future commitments to buy Boeing 777s are contingent on FedEx Express' continued coverage by the Railway Labor Act.

As many of us already know, all of the employees of FedEx Express are covered by the Railway Labor Act. This Act was put in place to administer the labor laws covering employees and companies when railroads were “king of transportation.” When airlines were formed, they were put under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act, with little change made to the antiquated document. This portrays a simplified version of the cards we have been dealt, but like it or not, we must play by those cards, as they represent the current law.