Federal Express, Pilots Reach Accord

Federal Express on Thursday announced a tentative agreement with its pilots, the cargo airline’s only domestic employees represented by a union.

Mike Akin, president of the FedEx Pilots Association, said the union’s negotiating board unanimously approved the four-year contract and will offer it to the rank-and-file for a vote in January.

Voting is expected to take about a month. Details of the contract were not released.

“We recommend it to our pilots without reservation,” Akin said.

If ratified, the contract would be the first for Federal Express and its 3,000 pilots. The FedEx Pilots Association won its collective bargaining rights in October 1996.

Company pilots settled on the in-house union after rejecting the Air Line Pilots Association following that union’s unsuccessful attempt to slow Christmas shipments in 1995.