FedEx Ground Delivery service is on the verge of imploding, just before the big shopping season. Rising costs of operation “have pushed contractors to brink of bankruptcy.” The moochers and the looters still haven’t figured out how to keep the producers moving after they’re dead. These independent contractors aren’t going on strike, they’re going under. The problem is that the parent company doesn’t want to believe them and fork over more money.
FedEx Wheels falling off
According to DailyMail, the FedEx delivery network teeters “on brink of COLLAPSE” because “rising costs have pushed contractors” to the edge of bankruptcy. The owner of one delivery fleet has already been squeezed out but he won’t be silenced.
Black Friday is right around the corner but the suits won’t fork over any increases. They don’t own their own trucks. The global corporation “relies upon local delivery companies to make the package and parcel drop-offs.”
After pulling in $54 billion, the delivery drivers are of the opinion it is way past time for the multinational conglomerate to share the wealth.
When Spencer Patton got vocal about telling the public that “the entire system is on the brink of falling apart with local workers unable to absorb any more rising costs,” they canceled his contract. “The FedEx Ground network is in far more peril than what anyone realizes,” Patton declares.
If the Wall Street analysts, “understood the degree to which the network is in danger,” Patton explains, “there would be widespread panic.” FedEx corporate and their ground division executives don’t have a clue what the real situation is for the rank and file drivers.
The contractors have been demanding higher pay and changes to operations. Corporate profits are through the roof but they’re at the point where operational survival is looking grim.
Not setting up a union
Patton was “hoping to negotiate directly with FedEx Ground and had set up a 10-member committee in the hope of focusing their attention.” They twisted that around back in his face and accused him of forming a union.
It may look similar, Patton counters, but it really is different. the corporation “has no network without contractors.” At the same time, they don’t have anything to haul without the corporation. “So we are inextricably linked here together in our mutual destiny.”
Patton “has argued how up to 35% of FedEx Ground delivery providers are at risk of financial failure and urged its leaders to improve compensation and has been rallying peers to his cause.” He got canned for it, too.
“CEO John Smith simply responded by telling the contractors how the company looked at fuel compensation in the contracts and decided no special action was necessary.”
He thinks holding them at the point of an economic gun by telling the independent haulers go ahead and do it will prevent their shakedown attempt. He doesn’t realize that once these companies go under, they aren’t coming back.
There won’t be any FedEx delivery drivers handing out Black Friday goodies this year. Not even zombie ones. According to the corporation, “the escalating conflict is harming its business and forcing it to spend money on damage control.” They can hire spin doctors but won’t pay the drivers.
