FedEx and Boeing: Hostages yet to be released

This is typical. If lies and smears are not enough to kill the Employee Free Choice Act, will blackmail be?

FedEx Corp will cancel an order to buy 15 Boeing Co jets, as well as an option for a further 15 planes, if Congress passes legislation that makes it easier for FedEx workers to organize under labor unions.

This is a threat. And Boeing is in on it:

The Boeing contract includes language that enables FedEx to cancel the order and the option, if the company's FedEx Express employees are no longer covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which covers airlines.

So Boeing and FedEx actually designed the contract so that this threat would be possible. This is a direct statement to the only union workers at FedEx, pilots. This is a direct statement to them and their union.

This is yet another example of big business putting aside competition to coordinate attacks against the Employee Free Choice Act. Ultimately, we have to decide whether or not their threat would hurt more people than passage of the EFCA would help. My guess is that the ability for millions of workers to safely organize a union is far more important than whether or not FedEx splurges on planes from a company that has profited mightily off war.

And this is the claim FedEx makes on their website:

FedEx is committed to providing outstanding customer experience, to being a great place to work, a thoughtful steward of the environment and a caring citizen in the communities where we live and work. At FedEx, we are passionate about sustainably connecting people and places and improving the quality of life around the world.

Which really means:

FedEx is committed to making a profit for our top management. At FedEx we are passionate about making a profit for those at the top. Forget being a great place to work, a thoughtful steward of the environment and a caring citizen in the communities where we live and work, and improving the quality of life around the world, we want a profit for those at the top.

Last thought: Where were the threats from big business if President Bush's policies were enacted, thus destroying our economy and hurting their businesses? Oh right, the people at the top made tons of cash under President Bush, so they did not care that those policies are directly the cause of their diving profits.