FedEx Stays Silent While Calls Mount for Boycott Over NRA Discounts
FedEx Corp., operator of the world’s largest cargo airline, has given no sign of budging from the discounts on shipping it offers to members of the National Rifle Association, even as social-media calls for a boycott mount following the deadly school shooting in Florida.
FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest North American for-hire carriers.
FedEx is part of the NRA Business Alliance and offers discounts through its FedEx Advantage program for shipping by FedEx Ground and FedEx Express and some services at FedEx Office, according to company and NRA websites. The courier didn’t respond to email and telephone requests for comment on the status of the relationship on Feb. 26 or on Feb. 23. NRA officials also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since Sunday, the #BoycottFedEx hashtag has been included in more than 700 posts on Twitter, including one by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school student David Hogg that has been shared more than 13,000 times. Hogg and peers at Stoneman Douglas have gained national attention as advocates for gun-law reforms since a Feb. 14 attack at the school left 17 students and teachers dead.
Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. are among companies that cut ties with the NRA following online calls to boycott the gun lobbying group. Symantec Corp., owner of Lifelock and Simplisafe Inc.; rental car companies Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Avis Budget Group Inc. and insurer MetLife Inc. all have dropped ties to the NRA.
FedEx continues to be listed on a website for the NRA Business Alliance and the group’s logo appears on an online page for the shipping company’s Advantage savings program offering discounts. Shares of the Memphis, Tenn. -based company were unruffled on Feb. 26, rising 0.3% to $252.91 at 12:46 p.m. in New York.
