Employees have complained that FedEx hit them with a deluge of anti-union messages and have mandated that they come to anti-union meetings. These meetings were hosted at FedEx facilities in 2015 and 2016.
“It’s time to campaign,” a FedEx human resources manager told workers at one meeting in July 2016, according to the article. “If you don’t want this third party coming in putting a wall between us, it’s time. Because when you campaign and tell them you don’t want them here, eventually it becomes loud and clear to them. You can do that.”
Greg Barfuss, who worked as a FedEx driver for seven years, was laid off in December 2015 after he publicly endorsed unionizing his FedEx warehouse in Gardena, California. “They told me, ‘either you’re a team player, or you’re a problem and we will do everything to eliminate problems,’” Barfuss said. “They first tried to intimidate me. When that didn’t work they fired me, and that scared other drivers from trying anymore.”
A FedEx spokesperson in an email to The Guardian said that the company “respects the right of our team members to decide for themselves if they want to be part of a union.” But the spokesperson also noted that “the law does not require us to remain neutral and protects our right to provide facts and opinions about unions so that our employees may make a fully informed decision.”