FedEx Pilots Move Toward Strike

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FedEx pilots have moved a step closer to a strike as talks with the corporation have reportedly stalled. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents the pilots, says the membership unanimously approved a strike authorization vote last week. That’s a long way from actually hitting the bricks, however. Another vote would have to be held and the federal government would have to approve a walkout after all hope of a mediated settlement was lost. Even then, they’d have to wait 30 days to actually walk off the job. Southwest and Delta pilots are at the same stage in their negotiations.

ALPA FedEx spokesman Capt. Chris Norman said the pilots are committed to reaching a negotiated settlement but are dissatisfied with progress so far. “The decision to move closer to a strike authorization vote is the result of nearly six months of federally mediated negotiations that has led to our disappointment with FedEx management’s actions at the bargaining table,” he said. FedEx said it’s business as usual, saying the vote “has no impact on our service as we continue delivering for our customers around the world.” 

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Keeping the world moving throughout the pandemic, while making billions for the corp, the pilots deserve an industry leading contract. Will FedEx deliver?

  2. Of course! The members of the board of FedEx are going to pilot the fleet in a action as a “business as usual”.

  3. Wow! I worked for FedEx for 36 years (it). Not one pilot strike in all of that time. The extremely stable workforce was actually a corporate strategic advantage. I retired in 2015. Multiple voluntary buyout waves since then. Decades of experience/knowledge walking out the door with no attempt to capture/retain said knowledge. Outsourcing to India. Fred must be rolling his eyes. Unimaginative/non innovative management team is in place. Really sad.

    • It seems to me that unionized businesses uniformly end up with managers like you describe. Not sure how much of it is inability to attract or rejecting the innovators like a virus when they slip in.
      The military has a similar problem, and has at times spent millions trying to figure out how to fix it. They know their problem is that they change the leader or lose the leader.
      I watched a peer who could have gotten a job at any Fortune 100, maxed the PT test, had a great personality, and was undoubtedly over 150 IQ simply get nowhere in the Army and leave. Looking at his linked in page, I’m guessing he’s getting paid 7 figures by a big financial firm where he runs a division today.

  4. As a 40 year Express employee (ground and air ops) who retired a year ago, this is just a sabre rattling exercise by the union, and the two sides will eventually come to an agreement like they have three times previously. However, agree with above poster that the entire company has been bloated and mismanaged for some time now, and surprised that Fred hasn’t reined this in (even though he stepped down from the CEO role a few years ago). This is what happens when you have IT, bean counters and Marketing folks running what is an OPERATIONS company. So sad to see my once proud company walking around with one foot nailed to the floor asking “why am I going around in circles?”

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