FEDEX FREIGHT DRIVERS JOIN TEAMSTERS

Laval, QC, March 9, 2019 — Teamsters Local Union 931 has filed a request for union certification on behalf of approximately 30 owner operators at FedEx Freight. The Montréal-based workers make deliveries and drive semi-trucks for a living.

Teamsters have been actively organizing FedEx drivers from coast to coast to coast. Workers at a FedEx warehouse in Surrey, BC, have also chosen Teamsters Local Union 31 to represent them.

“That was our first major organizing victory, after FedEx pilots joined in the United States,” explained the president of Teamsters Canada, François Laporte. “These workers want better and they deserve better.”

The formal request for union certification was filed on Thursday with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.

“I would like to welcome the FedEx Freight workers into the big Teamster family,” added the president of Teamsters Local Union 931, Richard Lamoureux. “Teamsters are the dominant union in the transportation industry in North America. These workers make the right choice.”

The presidents of Teamsters Canada and Teamsters Local Union 931 also wanted to thank organizers Alain Coursol and Alain Turcotte for their excellent work, as well as the workers who helped with the union drive.

Teamsters represent close to 125,000 workers across Canada, including over 17,000 workers in the courier industry and over 15 000 long-haul truckers. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America.

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Media requests :

Stéphane Lacroix
Director of Communications and Public Affairs (Québec)
Cell : 514 609-5101
slacroix@teamsters.ca

FedEx worker froze to death outside an Illinois delivery hub

By Amanda Woods

February 1, 2019 | 3:41pm

William L. MurphyFacebook

A FedEx worker froze to death outside an Illinois delivery hub this week as a polar vortex plunged the region into sub-zero temperatures, according to a new report.

William L. Murphy, 69, was found dead at FedEx Freight in East Moline on Thursday morning, Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson told local TV station WQAD.

Another worker found Murphy’s body between two tractor-trailers, Capt. Darren Gault of the East Moline Police Department told the outlet.

Authorities weren’t sure how long Murphy had been there before the discovery.

Gault said there were no signs of foul play and that the weather played a role in Murphy’s death. Temperatures in the region dipped as low as negative 33 degrees that morning.

The exact cause of death will be determined following an autopsy scheduled for Monday.

Authorities were using security cameras around the facility to aid in their investigation, according to the report.

FedEx offering employee buyouts to save up to $275M in 2020

$275M in 2020

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FedEx Express

COURTESY OF FEDEX CORP.

By Jason Bolton 
Data Editor, Memphis Business Journal

Jan 18, 2019, 4:51pm CST 
Updated Jan 22, 2019, 8:36am EST

FedEx is trimming its employee roster with buyouts to reduce costs.

In a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission late Jan. 18, FedEx Corp. announced it has begun offering eligible U.S.-based employees voluntary cash buyouts.

FedEx expects costs related to the voluntary buyouts to range from $450 million to $575 million in pre-tax expenditures, according to the filing. The costs will depend on the acceptance rates by employees.

FedEx expects the costs to mostly occur during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. The company expects savings of $225 million to $275 million, on an annualized basis, beginning in fiscal 2020.

Voluntary severance payments would be calculated based on four weeks of gross base salary for each year of continuous service with FedEx, resulting in a maximum of two years-worth of pay.

NLRB Returns to Long-Standing Independent-Contractor Standard

NLRB Returns to Long-Standing Independent-Contractor Standard

Washington, DC—Today, the National Labor Relations Board returned to its long-standing independent-contractor standard, reaffirming the Board’s adherence to the traditional common-law test.  In doing so, the Board clarified the role entrepreneurial opportunity plays in its determination of independent-contractor status, as the D.C. Circuit has recognized.

The case, SuperShuttle DFW, Inc., involved shuttle-van-driver franchisees of SuperShuttle at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.   Applying its clarified standard, the Board concluded that the franchisees are not statutory employees under the National Labor Relations Act (the Act), but rather independent contractors excluded from the Act’s coverage. 

The Board found that the franchisees’ leasing or ownership of their work vans, their method of compensation, and their nearly unfettered control over their daily work schedules and working conditions provided the franchisees with significant entrepreneurial opportunity for economic gain.  These factors, along with the absence of supervision and the parties’ understanding that the franchisees are independent contractors, resulted in the Board’s finding that the franchisees are not employees under the Act.  The decision affirms the Acting Regional Director’s finding that the franchisees are independent contractors.

Today’s decision overrules FedEx Home Delivery, a 2014 NLRB decision that modified the applicable test for determining independent-contractor status by severely limiting the significance of a worker’s entrepreneurial opportunity for economic gain.

Chairman John F. Ring was joined by Members Marvin E. Kaplan and William J. Emanuel in the majority opinion.  Member Lauren McFerran dissented.