Reply #3: Read this about FedEx's labor history

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

This doesn't have a date on it but I believe this occurred in 2007.

http://www.massaflcio.org/attorney-general-coakley%E2%80%99s-office-hits-federal-express-fine-misclassifying-drivers

Attorney General Coakley’s Office Hits Federal Express with Fine for Misclassifying Drivers

Across the country, Federal Express is notorious for abusing the classification of ‘independent contractor' in order to keep drivers from organizing into unions, and depriving them of health care benefits, access to unemployment insurance, workers compensation benefits, and in some cases overtime pay. Many drivers have successfully appealed this classification and have gained the right to join a union, but Federal Express has refused to acknowledge that their drivers are in fact company employees--not independent contractors, dragging each individual case through the National Labor Relations Board. Appealing the classification is generally an effort in futility for the company, as the NLRB has ruled on seven different occasions that FedEx drivers are company employees. However, in doing so the company is using a favored union-busting tactic of large corporations--using their vast resources to drag out the process through endless and unnecessary appeals, thus denying justice through delay.

Now though, it is the company who is suffering from their own misguided policy, as the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office recently took the initiative to expose this misclassification before the company has another opportunity to drag it through years of litigation. Attorney General Martha Coakley's office assessed penalties of more than $190,000 against FedEx Ground for intentionally misclassifying thirteen drivers as independent contractors. The investigation represents a proactive approach by the Attorney General's Office, particularly the Fair Labor Division, headed by Assistant Attorney General Joanne Goldstein.

Attorney General Coakley stated, "The practice of misclassification does great harm, not only to misclassified workers and to the Commonwealth in the form of lost revenues, but also by putting law-abiding businesses at a disadvantage. We intend to pursue aggressively employers such as FedEx Ground when they violate the Commonwealth's Independent Contractor Law."

The enforcement of employee misclassification is also a huge victory for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who are organizing FedEx drivers throughout the country. Teamsters Local 25 recently won an organizing victory by proving to the National Labor Relations Board that 39 drivers at two FedEx facilities in Wilmington, MA are employees, not independent contractors. The findings of the Fair Labor Division and the threat of enforcement should prevent any future misclassifications in Massachusetts, making it easier for FedEx drivers to unionize, and forcing FedEx to compete fairly with companies that employ union workers and provide good wages and benefits, such as UPS.

http://www.fedexdriverslawsuit.com/

FIRST SUMMARY JUDGMENT RULING FROM THE FEDERAL MDL COURT HOLDS THAT ILLINOIS FEDEX DRIVERS ARE EMPLOYEES, NOT INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS
June, 2010. FedEx Ground and Home Delivery drivers have been found to be employees under the Illinois Wage Act. The decision was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Miller in the multi-district litigation that Judge Miller has been presiding over for the past five years. (In re: FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. Employment Practices Litigation, Cause No. 3:05-MD-527 RM) This holding came in a May 28, 2010 Opinion and Order granting summary judgment to the Illinois drivers under the Wage Act. The Court did not rule on other claims made by the Illinois drivers, but indicated it will address those claims separately.

The decision is important in that it is one of a growing number of decisions in the past few years holding that the FedEx Ground drivers are employees and not, as FedEx claims, independent contractors. The essence of the cases consolidated before Judge Miller is that FedEx Ground has intentionally and consistently misclassified drivers as independent contractors, when they are in reality employees.