As you can imagine, the N&R spins the FedEx delay in the best possible light:
Last week’s FedEx announcement was like getting an IOU for Christmas. The giant delivery company will postpone the start of its new air-cargo operations at Piedmont Triad International Airport and hire fewer workers initially.
The news was disappointing but not surprising. Only a week earlier, FedEx said its “financial performance is increasingly being challenged by some of the worst economic conditions in the company’s 35-year operating history.” Anticipating more of the same in 2009, it outlined a series of cost-cutting measures, including base-salary decreases effective Jan. 1, continuation of a hiring freeze and further reductions in labor hours.
In view of these moves, a major expansion in Greensboro wasn’t going to be wrapped up under the tree this Christmas.
Funny, a couple of weeks ago PTI big guys Henry Isaacson and Ted Johnson were telling Guilford County commissioners about the magnetic effect FedEx would have. And we won’t bring up Skybus again. Let’s just say PTI can’t catch a break these days.
What gets me is the N&R’s imagery of FedEx as some kind of a gift. FedEx might be many things —depending on whom you believe — but it ain’t no gift. If anything, we’re doing the giving.
