Socialized Medicine: a bad thing??!?

Logical consistency has never been our Commuter and Thief's strongest suit. He recently defended his veto, of a modest increase in help for children lacking health insurance, by arguing that too much government help discourages private employers from doing their part. Yet a year ago he was celebrating the achievements of a company who exploits the misclassification of workers as "independent contractors," to deny them health benefits and other protections.






Official Statement of Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President


October 6, 2006



Today, President Bush used mediocre monthly payroll figures to give himself a self-congratulatory pat on the back about an economy that is failing American workers. It is fitting that the White House chose to spin their skewed economic message at a FedEx facility in Washington, D.C., one of the most anti-worker companies in the United States.
FedEx has created a business model with a cutthroat mentality even Machiavelli would admire. CEO Fred Smith will collect over $10 million in compensation and dividend income this year alone, money that he earns by exploiting thousands of FedEx Ground drivers through an “independent contractor” model.
FedEx has abused this independent contractor status to shift risks and costs onto the drivers and taxpayers. The drivers take on costs that should be paid by the company, including trucks, uniforms and digital scanners.
As a bonus, this model allows FedEx to avoid paying income tax withholding, unemployment insurance premiums and worker compensation contributions while dodging state labor laws and federal laws like the Family Medical Leave Act and Equal Employment Opportunity Laws.
The good news is that this model is unraveling as state and federal agencies expose this business model for what it is—a scam perpetrated upon the American workforce.
A California court ruled this business model to be illegal in 2005. California found that FedEx Ground owed nearly $8 million in back taxes. Since 1988, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled seven out of eight times that the FedEx Ground drivers are employees and not independent contractors.
The Teamsters won two such NLRB decisions in Massachusetts this year and drivers at three FedEx Ground locations are on their way to joining the Teamsters and securing their rights through collective bargaining.
With every record profit reported by corporate America and new stock market high, working men and women in America are reminded that they are expendable, a disposable part in a machine that is designed to make money in the most efficient manner possible.
The rich get richer, lining their pockets with profits earned on the backs of exploited workers, while the majority of Americans have not seen any appreciable increase in their income. It is fitting that Bush held his press conference at FedEx, a company that is blatantly violating its workers’ rights every day.
The White House should be more careful in selecting the company that represents our “healthy economy,” rather than choosing one as political payback because the CEO hosted a $2,100-a-plate fundraiser last week in Memphis, where Bush was the headliner.





So, how are things over at Fred Smith's FedEx these days? Has the company seen the error of its ways and decided to become a model corporate citizen? Well... here's a report from the good
folks over at unbossed.com:






Saturday, October 13, 2007
The drivers have been F****ed
Last August 19, in FedEx and Its So-Called Independent Contractors we reported on FedEx's big loss. FedEx had claimed that drivers it had claimed the drivers were independent contractors, but the court found they were actually employees. So how did FedEx respond? It F****ed them.
That's right. They've been FedExed. FedEx fired the workers.
The FedEx mass firing of over 1000 single-route truck drivers at Ground/Home Delivery terminals in California is an appalling abuse of the legal process and demonstrates the company’s rank indifference to its employees. This action is clearly in retaliation to the class action law suits that assert that FedEx’s misclassification of those drivers is illegal. FedEx seeks to not only punish the California drivers by eliminating their livelihoods, but it also intends to have a chilling effect on drivers across the nation. Refusing to accept the recent determination of the California Court of Appeals that its drivers are legally employees and provide them the rights and benefits to which they are entitled, FedEx instead says to them, "you’re fired."
These drivers are among the 12,000 drivers in the nationwide class of drivers challenging FedEx's illegal independent contractor model, recently found to violate California law. Similar cases are pending in over 30 other states.
Taking the law into its own hands, FedEx has illegally retaliated against innocent workers who simply exercised their right to go to court to redress FedEx’s illegal system which denies them every employment right to which they are entitled. FedEx’s aggressive action also violates every principle of fairness and decency. No matter how FedEx spins this, the reality is that it has announced the firing of every single-route driver in California.
Plaintiffs' counsel Lynn Rossman Faris said, "The drivers are stunned by this retaliation which was surely intended to send a message to all the other drivers in America that they better not step out of line." Rossman Faris added that she and her co-counsel are reviewing their legal options.
Basically FedEx is continuing on with its illegal actions, trying to make it appear that these workers are independent contractors while depriving them of the protections and money employees get. FedEx has said it will not renew the California drivers' contracts unless they will take on contracts with other companies, giving the impression that they are true independent contractors. In other states they are continuing on with the same structure found to be illegal in California.

Guess I'm going with UPS!! :)