Sluggo_63

So now your issue is WHERE the trucks operate, not how many. So it's okay that FedEx has 41,000 trucks, but it's just that they're on the open road. But that's not the legal criteria. You see, the RLA just doesn't cover airlines, but railroads, too. And I don't think that the railroads would fit your criteria of just having their trucks in the rail yard. Either way, I'll give you a airline example that bursts your theory. Try to buy a ticket on Continental Airlines from Newark, NJ to Allentown, PA. They'll charge you $1,400 for a non-stop flight, but when you read the small print, you are traveling on Continental Connection Bus Service. That's right, after you go through security, you go to gate C-whatever and get loaded on a bus which drives (over the open roads) to Allentown, PA, where you are unloaded into the terminal. So what labor law do you think those drivers fall under?
You're right. I've also had on more than one occasion (more than I'd like to count) a big, grey van with 'United Airlines' painted on the side come to my house to drop off my three-day old lost luggage. How did they get there without me building a 5,000 foot airstrip in my backyard? Oh, yeah, roads...
Again, this is not the legal test to see if a worker falls under the RLA. It's a two-prong test (function and ownership) and nowhere does location come into play. American Airlines IT workers were found to fall under the RLA, even though they do not work on airport property. Their work was found to be integral to the airline's operation, and they were found to be owned by AA, therefore, RLA.
Soya, you are always haranguing everybody else in your posts for proof, proof, proof... but when asked to provide some, you have none. You can PM me the pictures, I will delete them after looking at them. Also waiting for an example where a FedEx Ground package went on an airplane. I'll give you another couple of days.

Here's my final though (until I get the pictures).

Until you can show me otherwise, here's how it works. FedEx Express is an airline, with airplanes, and vehicles. The vehicles are instrumental to the airline and they are owned by the airline. It has no bearing where the drivers drive, where they work, or that other drivers in this country fall under the NLRA. These FedEx Express drivers are airline employees that do a job vital and critical to the airline operation. Therefore they are rightly found to perform work under the RLA.

In my years at FedEx I can honestly say I have NEVER seen a FedEx ground truck at one of our Express sort facilities. Not in Memphis, nor Des Moines, Newark, or Fort Lauderdale. Never. It is a separate company, with separate sort facilities, separate infrastructure, separate everything.

Now, it is my understanding that UPS packages, whether you are shipping Air, Ground, whatever, all go to the same sort facility with intermingling of ground and air packages. That is the issue... there is no separate air drivers and ground drivers, therefore, NLRA. If UPS wants to break off their air division drivers from their ground network, then so be it. But until then, or until the Teamsters and UPS bully congress into writing a 'FedEx clause' unto the pending legislation, this is the way it will (and should) remain.

Ditto. And seeing how I'm not convincing you and you are not convincing me, this is going nowhere, except to keep me from things I really enjoy doing, this is my last post on the subject (unless of course, I get those pictures from you).

Sluggo63