| FedEx workers will hold national 24-hour strikes on Monday after the company exploited the suspension of strikes this week to ship its American anti-worker campaign to Australia and change the terms of the agreement. In good faith, FedEx workers had paused strikes planned for yesterday to allow the company to provide a fair agreement offer at a further negotiation meeting. Talks broke down yesterday after FedEx rolled back progression towards an agreement by trying to stretch its length out by another year. This approach swindles workers out of repayment for hard work during the pandemic and destabilises growth as the economy recovers. In the previous weeks, TWU members had made great progress in obtaining job security protections, but other terms are now being attacked dragging down standards already below those of other major transport operators like Toll and Linfox. TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said Australian FedEx workers will not stand for the Amazon-style union-busting tactics the company wants to ship over from America. “FedEx workers are angry their good faith has been twisted, exploited and thrown back in their face this week. While six other transport operators have settled fair agreements in the last two weeks, FedEx is keeping its foot on workers’ necks. “It is a disgrace that FedEx took the extra time agreed to by workers to change tack and launch a fresh assault on their terms and conditions. These workers generated record multibillion-dollar profits for FedEx but their pay and conditions fall dangerously below those at their competitors like Toll and Linfox. “When standards are dragged down in transport, it has deadly consequences. “In the US, FedEx spent $837,000 on a union-busting campaign when workers fought for parity with UPS workers. The Australian Federal Government has allowed American cellar-dwellers Amazon and FedEx to set up shop and go about their business attacking workers with no regulation to keep them in check. Workers have no choice but to fight back,” he said. National StarTrack strikes took place yesterday after the company refused several requests to meet worker representatives and finalise a fair agreement. StarTrack and FedEx have proven to be outliers fighting ideological battles. Over the last two weeks, fair deals have been reached at Toll, Linfox, Global Express, BevChain, Ceva and ACFS. In June, FedEx reported record revenues at US$84 billion and net income over US$5 billion. In July, Amazon and Apple – key clients of StarTrack and FedEx – reported profits had roughly doubled compared to the previous year. Amazon’s half-year profits reached US$15.89 billion, while Apple’s June-quarter profits reached US$21.7 billion. |