newsworthy
Mr. Smith flexes his
Chamber of Commerce
backs gas tax hike to
fund highway programs
muscle in Washington
FEDEX CORP. CHAIRMAN FREDERICK W. SMITH HAS ALWAYS
had good friends in the U.S. Senate. Those with long memories may
remember the near-unconditional support given to Smith and FedEx
by former Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) in the 1980s and 1990s, for
instance.
In mid-July, the Senate again stepped up to the plate for Smith by
introducing bipartisan legislation that did not contain a provision that
would have made it easier for unions to organize workers at the corporation’s FedEx Express unit.
The provision, which had
been included in the version
passed by the House of
Representatives in May, would
have brought FedEx’s express
operations under the jurisdiction of the National Labor
Relations Act (NLRA)—the
same law that covers rival UPS
Inc.—instead of the Railway
Labor Act (RLA), which today covers FedEx Express employees. The
NLRA, which permits workers to be organized at a local, terminal-by-terminal level, is considered a much easier path to unionization than
the RLA, which requires that workers at a company be organized as a
single unit.
The language that would have reclassified FedEx Express’s operations under a different labor law was introduced by Rep. James L.
Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee. Currently, all FedEx Express employees are
covered by the RLA, a 1926 law that governs labor relations in the airline and railroad industries, whether they’re air-based workers (like
pilots) or workers who aren’t directly involved in aircraft operation
and maintenance (like loaders or delivery truck drivers). Oberstar’s
provision would have permitted the RLA classification for only those
express carrier employees who are pilots and airplane mechanics, and
perform the type of work governed under that law. He said the provision would “remove the disparity in current law” between the express
operations of FedEx and UPS.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FEDEX
Clash of the titans
Though he has won provisional Senate support—at this writing, the
bill had not been voted out of the Senate Commerce Committee,
where it was introduced—Smith is taking no chances. On June 9,
FedEx rolled out an online campaign called “Brown Bailout” p. 14
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
nation’s largest business organization,
said July 15 its members would support an increase in the federal gasoline
tax to fund needed infrastructure
improvements.
Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber’s
CEO, did not specify how much the
increase should be. However, at a
news conference, he didn’t back away
from a proposal made last year by an
industry task force to increase the federal gas tax 5 to 8 cents per year for
five years. The federal gas tax is currently at 18. 4 cents per gallon; it has
remained at that level since 1993.
Donahue told reporters that “we
don’t see this as a tax. We see it as a
user fee.”
The Chamber joins, among others,
the American Trucking Associations and
the National Industrial Transportation
League in backing a hike in the federal
gas tax to pay for infrastructure projects.
Donahue headed the trucking group
before moving to the Chamber.
Donahue spoke at a Chamber of
Commerce event to marshal support
for efforts to pass surface transportation
reauthorization legislation by the time
the current bill expires on Sept. 30. The
Obama administration is pushing for an
18-month extension of the current legislation, saying there are too many
issues now on the table to adequately
focus on transportation reauthorization
in the near term. The administration’s
move is opposed by a wide range of
interests, including the Chamber and
James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman
of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee. However, the
Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee voted July 15 to extend the
existing program by 18 months. ;
— M.S.
