Corporations and unions are using increasingly sophisticated, campaign-style tactics to press their issues in Washington, and the tussle between FedEx and United Parcel Service is just one illustration, the Washington Post reports.
The two companies - locked in a battle over whether FedEx should comply with the same labor laws as UPS - are using ads, websites, grassroots organizing and other tactics to make their cases before lawmakers.
"It is unusual to see a full-blown, integrated campaign of this type over such a specific and narrow policy issue," Council President Doug Pinkham told the Post. "But I think it's a sign of things to come. You're going to see a lot more companies, associations and activist groups running public-relations campaigns that look a lot more like political campaigns."
Such tactics, typically used in political campaigns, were evident in high-profile debates, such as Congress' protracted battle over health-care reform drink makers' fight against proposed soda taxes.
In the FedEx-UPS issue, a House-passed bill would put many employees at FedEx's express-carrier operation under the same labor laws as UPS drivers. The laws that apply to the UPS are considered more friendly to unions by allowing local organizing and strikes. The one that now governs FedEX generally bans strikes and requires labor unions to organize an entire company at one time.
The debate between the two rival organizations has held up congressional spending legislation for the Federal Aviation Administration.
