Is Unionization A Goal Of Obama?

by John M. White | Mar 08, 2010

There has been a great deal of talk about the Obama administration and its relationship with unions. It is widely noted that the union vote was an essential ingredient in the election of Obama over John McCain. Many fear that laws will be changed to make it easier for unions to organize employees at non-union companies. The FAA funding bill, some $ 53.5 Billion, is being held up in the U.S. Senate because of some language placed in the bill by the House which would make FedEx employees subject to the same union laws as its competitor UPS. Currently the only unionized workers at FedEx are the pilots, so this proposed change would affect the balance of its 290,000 employees.

Many at FedEx believe that this effort to enable unions to unionize FedEx is an attempt to help UPS out of its financial difficulties by leveling the playing field. FedEx is the world's largest cargo airline, and a direct competitor of UPS.

The Teamsters Union has been attempting for years to unionize FedEx, but has been unsuccessful so far. While the Senate bill does not contain the House language, FedEx is concerned that during reconciliation (where have we heard that word before?) the language would be added back in. The rub is that the law would allow workers to be elect to be unionized at the national level rather than having to organize local units to unionize. Until the language issue has been cleared up Senator Corker of FedEx's home state of Tennessee has placed a hold on the bill. It would require a 60 vote majority to pass the bill with Corker's hold on the bill in place. Is this an effort by the Obama administration to repay its union supporters? What do you think? Until next time keep your wings straight and level Hersch! JetAviator7 I am not afraid of crashing, my secret is . . . just before we hit the ground, I jump as high as I can. — Bill Cosby

Tag: General Aviation