Labor & Employment Law

House Republicans, Delta Move to Overturn Fair Election Rules for Air and Rail Workers

By Mike Hall

The battle over workers? rights moves from state capitols to Capitol Hill next week when House Republicans will try to repeal rules that guarantee fair and democratic elections for workers who want to form unions.

The House is set vote on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill with a provision that would repeal last year?s new rule by the National Mediation Board (NMB) that says air and rail elections should be decided just like any other election?including congressional elections?by a majority of votes cast.

Previously under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which covers rail and airline workers, each worker who did not cast a vote in a representation election was automatically counted as a ?No? vote.

Republicans and their corporate partners in the transportation industry fought to block the NMB rule through the courts and with a Senate bill last year. They are now mounting a campaign to overturn it through the FAA bill and Delta Airlines is leading the way, reports Brian Beutler on Talking Points Memo.

Now, sources say, a similar fight is likely to play out on the House floor, and anti-union employees at Delta Airlines are preparing to fly to Washington to join the fight.

Beutler says the group “No Way AFA”–a coalition of Deltal employees who want to derail union rights–sent a message to its members obtained by TPM that asserts, “Delta strongly supports the bill” as currently written. AFA is the Association of Flight Attendants, the flight attendants union.

You can help by calling and urging your friends  and co-workers to call your lawmakers and tell them to oppose the attack on workers rights and fair elections. Text NMB to 69866 to get the info.

The Senate version the FAA bill does not roll back the democratic election rule.

Click here for the full story and here for more information. Check out comments on  about Beutler’s post:

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).