FedEx has reached a tentative agreement with the union representing its pilots, in a new collective bargaining deal following years of intense negotiations.
Both FedEx and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) union announced the deal in separate releases on April 8. The contract includes a nearly 40% hourly pay increase in 2026, with 3% annual increases starting in 2028. It will next need to be presented to the ALPA’s union board, known as the FedEx Master Executive Council (MEC). If the MEC approves it, the deal will then need to be ratified by FedEx’s rank-and-file pilots.
“This tentative agreement reflects our commitment to our valued crew members and to our growth strategy for the airline and the business as a whole,” said Richard Smith, COO and CEO for Airline, FedEx. “It’s a win-win for our pilots, for FedEx, and for our customers around the world.”
ALPA pilots had previously voted down a separate tentative agreement in 2023, which would have included a 30% pay bump over a five-year period. That created a divide among union members, culminating in the removal of the MEC board, which was viewed as too amenable to management’s proposals. The union then petitioned the National Mediation Board (NMB) to release the two sides from mediation in March of 2024, which represented the first step toward a potential strike.
After the NMB denied the union’s request to end mediation a month later, the MEC selected a new negotiating committee and resumed talks with FedEx in September 2024. Sessions scheduled for January and February of 2025 were later canceled, before the two sides once again picked up talks in April 2025.
