Labor & Employment Law

Court Upholds Democratic Election Rules Rail for Air, Rail Workers

By Mike Hall

A federal court upheld new democratic voting procedures for workers in the airline and rail industries who want to form unions. Earlier this year, the National Mediation Board (NMB) issued a new rule that says air and rail union elections must be decided by a majority of votes cast.

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

In May, the Air Transport Association and 10 of the airline industry group?s members filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the NMB ruling that. The court upheld the new rule and denied ATA’s request for an injunction.

Edward Wytkind president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) says the court?s action brings workers ?a step closer to pursuing the power of collective bargaining under fairer union election rules.?

The deck has been stacked against workers for too long with many union elections being invalidated by unfair rules that required super majority participation?a standard found nowhere else in our democracy.  The new rules put an end to the practice of counting all non-voting employees as ?no? votes.

The rule is set to go into effect July 1 and could have a fairly quick impact at Delta Airlines  where flight attendants have been battling the carrier?s aggressive anti-union  actions for years. Says Flight Attendants/CWA (AFA/CWA) President Patricia Friend:

Democracy has prevailed and we gladly usher in a new era where aviation and railway employees have a voice.

When Delta and Northwest merged in 2008, more than 7,000 Northwest AFA members lost their collective bargaining rights and the 20,000 flight attendants at Delta were in the midst of long battle to win a voice work.

Delta management mounted a massive anti-union campaign, including harassment, videotaping and threatening union activists, says the union. The union says it will file an election petition when the rule goes into effect.  For more on the Delta flight attendants, click here.

Ground service workers at Delta are seeking representation with the Machinists (IAM). There are some 30,000 ramp workers and customer service agents at Delta, including about 10,000 from Northwest who were represented by the IAM. For more on the ground workers? fight to join the IAM, click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).