Author: serpnames

The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) today released the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives voting down an amendment in support of the National Mediation Board’s recent ruling undoing nearly a century of precedent requiring majority support to form a collective bargaining unit in the airline and railroad industries, as well as passing the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 with language reversing the regulatory agency’s ruling:

“Today, workers won and Big Labor lost, plain and simple.  The message sent by the U.S. House of Representatives to regulatory agencies such as the National Mediation Board and National Labor Relations Board is unambiguous and unmistakable: we will undo your handouts to union bosses,” said Katie Gage, executive director of the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI).  “With the U.S. House voting down an amendment that would have upheld the National Mediation Board’s ruling allowing a minority of workers to dictate whether a collective bargaining unit had been formed and passing the FAA Reauthorization Act, workers in the airline and railroad industries can claim victory.  The fight now continues to secure Congressional passage and pressure the White House to sign legislation their political benefactors oppose, but the American people support.”

Washington Examiner: Congress Should Restore Democracy To Union Elections

Here’s how the NMB did its mischief: The law as it’s been interpreted for 75 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations requires union organizers to get the consent of a majority of all employees on a firm’s payroll before the union can begin acting as their collective bargaining agent. If 51 percent vote to unionize, all of their fellow workers are forced to join the union and pay mandatory union dues. They are subject to termination if they refuse.

Then President Obama’s two Democratic appointees to the three-member board changed the majority requirement. Instead of garnering the approval of a majority of all workers, the NMB decided that union organizers only had to win a majority of those who voted in the union election. This change has led to decidedly undemocratic outcomes. For example, only 994 AirTran workers were able to force all 2,900 of their fellow employees to become members of the International Association of Machinists even though 66 percent never voted to unionize.

The Detroit News: Restore Fairness To Airline Union Votes

A measure to restore fairness to union organizing drives at airlines gets a vote in the U.S. House today, and members should support it. The provision does nothing more than require that a majority of employees vote for establishing a union before they are forced to join one.

That was the standard for 75 years — that the union had to win more than 50 percent of the entire work force — until an obscure federal agency, the National Mediation Board, changed the rules to make it easier for unions to prevail in organizing elections. The new rule gives the union a victory if it wins a majority of those who cast votes in an organizing election.

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