… but apparently he is dumb enough to be considering Frederick Smith, CEO of FedEx and a notorious union-buster,for the Vice-Presidential slot on his ticket.
Late yesterday, our Chair, Anna Burger, issued a statement explaining why this would be a bad idea:
Recent reports that FedEx CEO Fred Smith is being considered by John McCain as a potential vice-presidential pick are beyond disturbing. As a well-known lifelong union buster, Smith has a disgraceful record of stripping workers of their most basic rights to organize and fight for a living wage. It is disheartening, although not surprising, that John McCain would consider picking such a notorious enemy of hard working men and women to be his running mate.
In the 35 years that Fred Smith has been the CEO of FedEx he has repeatedly fought against workers joining together to have a voice on the job, openly stating that he ‘doesn’t intend to recognize any unions at Federal Express.’ Less than 2% of the 200,000 American workers at FedEx are in a union. In contrast, UPS unionized workers make nearly 30 percent more than they non-union counterparts at FedEx. Despite organizing efforts, FedEx has filed appeal after appeal to deny their workers the right to bargain collectively, and has sought national legislation to thwart union organizing.
Americans have already suffered through seven years of a White House that places corporate interests before the interests of America’s working families and we’ve seen the results - millions of homeowners facing foreclosure, gas prices at record levels, and skyrocketing health care costs. Workers cannot afford another lobbyist-dominated administration. A vice-president Fred Smith would be bad for America, and bad for workers. Working families need leadership in the White House that will help them reclaim the American Dream, not a third Bush term.
Beyond spending time keeping his workers from achieving the American Dream, Smith also enjoys not understanding the economy. A few days ago, he told Bloomberg News that we’re not in a recession and the price of fuel is coming down:
“I don’t think we’re in a recession,” Smith said Monday in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’re in a period of extremely low growth brought on by high fuel prices and the financial meltdown.”
Smith’s comment comes just weeks after FedEx posted its first quarterly loss in 11 years, reporting a $241 million loss on a writedown for its subsidiary Kinkos.
Smith said in the interview that fuel prices have been the main culprit for the financial difficulty, but he believes the price of fuel is in a decline.
While “does he really believe that?” comments like these would put Smith in line with the rest of McCain’s economic advisors, such as Phil “Nation of Whiners” Gramm, they sound a little misinformed to anybody who hasn’t been living in a cave for the last few years.
So, is John McCain really dumb enough to tap a guy like this as his running mate? I guess we’ll find out!
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