FedEx Pilots Agree Not to Strike Now

Federal Express Corp. pilots agreed Friday to keep working during the holiday season after talk of a possible strike sparked a rally by nonunion workers backing the company and drew a hard line from FedEx’s founder.

Talks between FDX Corp.’s FedEx and the Fedex Pilots Assn., which is seeking its first contract, were scheduled to resume Monday after the union agreed to a 60-day cooling-off period during which it cannot strike. Its acceptance came after a four-hour board meeting Thursday in which union leadership heard from pilots opposed to a walkout, a union spokesman said.

The union that represents the company’s 3,500 pilots had scheduled a count of strike-authorization ballots for Dec. 3, but delayed it for at least 60 days. Pilots also agreed to resume working overtime.

FedEx Chairman Frederick Smith had warned the pilots earlier in the week that the company would keep its shipments moving “with or without” them and that their jobs could be in jeopardy.

Also on Thursday, about 3,500 nonunion employees at the company’s Memphis headquarters staged a rally supporting FedEx and made it clear if the pilots walked out, they would continue working. FedEx has more than 140,000 employees worldwide.

But a spokesman for the union representing the company’s 3,500 pilots said the decision to accept a cooling-off period was a business decision made after reviewing the company’s contingency plans, not a capitulation.

“That’s not our feeling, that we capitulated in any manner,” spokesman Bob Clement said.

Before negotiations broke down, the company had offered a 17% raise over five years. The union has sought a 24% raise over four years.

A spokesman for Federal Express said the pilots had agreed to provide a comprehensive written contract proposal, a demand the company had insisted on in order to resume negotiations, which broke off Oct. 30.

William Margaritis, a FedEx vice president and spokesman, said the “tens of millions of dollars” spent leasing planes and trucks as part of its contingency plans during the strike threat will be taken into consideration in negotiations. He declined to say if that meant pilots could expect smaller pay raises than they might have gotten otherwise.

FDX stock rose $1.88 to close at $60.69 on the New York Stock Exchange.