FedEx Ground to Appeal Labor Board's Ruling

Transport Topics, February, 2006 by Reiskin, Jonathan S

FedEx Ground, the truckbased parcel courier of FedEx Corp., said last week it planned to appeal a ruling by a National Labor Relations Board official that directed an election be held at one of the company's Massachusetts terminals on whether the Teamsters union should represent drivers there.

The decision also said the drivers at Ground's Home Delivery unit should be classified as employees, rather than owner-operators.

In analyzing how the approximately 20 drivers in Northborough, Mass., should be classified, Rosemary Pye, the NLRB regional director in Boston, wrote that FedEx Home Delivery "oilers what is essentially a take-it-or-leave-it agreement" and that "there is little room for the contractors to influence their income through their own efforts or...