Bloomberg: FedEx, UPS Increase Donations to Democrats - August 22, 2007

Bloomberg ran an analysis of corporate Political Action Committee giving by some of the largest PACs in the nation.  The Bloomberg headline writer chose to highlight both FedEx and UPS in the headline.  But the reporter clearly had FedEx in his sights:

FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service Inc. and General Dynamics Corp. are among companies shifting campaign contributions to Democrats after years of favoring Republicans, federal records show.

FedEx's political action committee contributed 58 percent of its money to Democrats in the first half of the year as it lobbies against a bill making it easier for the company's truck drivers to unionize, according to the Federal Election Commission. In the 2006 election, two-thirds of FedEx's PAC donations went to Republicans in their unsuccessful bid to keep congressional control.

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Memphis-based FedEx said the donations aren't tied to fighting the pro-union legislation. FedEx, the second-largest U.S. package-shipping company, opposes a bill to let its truck drivers join local unions rather than having to organize nationally. The House Transportation Committee in June attached the provision to legislation renewing airline taxes and fees.

The measure would put FedEx truck drivers under the same labor law as those working for its larger competitor, UPS, which employs 246,000 Teamsters.

FedEx spokeswoman Kristin Krause said the donations are unrelated to the legislation. ``We've always been very bipartisan in our PAC contributions and look for candidates on both sides of the aisle that understand our issues,'' she said.

So FedEx gave 66 percent of its contributions to Republicans when the GOP was in charge and then in 2007 gave 58 of its political action money to Dems when they're on top.  By comparison, the article details how the breakdown of UPS contributions to Democrats went from 32 percent in 2006 to 40 percent so far in 2007.