Hot News for December 2009

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American Airlines' talks with three major unions stuck in holding pattern

11:25 PM CST on Monday, December 14, 2009

By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News
tmaxon@dallasnews.com

Legally, there'll be no impasse in American Airlines Inc.'s labor talks until the National Mediation Board decides there's an impasse.

But practically speaking, the talks with American's three major unions are at a virtual stalemate.

• More than three years after the airline and the Allied Pilots Association began negotiations, the two sides have made little substantive progress. Their last talks, overseen by a federal mediator, were in September.
• American and the Transport Workers Union, which started contract talks in November 2007, have reached agreements for none of the union's work groups.
• The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which began its negotiations in June 2008, put up picket lines at airports in November and conducted a simulated strike to prod the Fort Worth-based airline. The union is talking strike next year, even though no union can walk out until the mediation board says it can.

And it appears that the board is in no rush to declare an impasse and release the parties from mediation, an action that would set the clock ticking for a potential work action in 30 days.

Bill Haug, secretary-treasurer of the Allied Pilots Association, told members last month that the National Mediation Board has put the union's negotiations "on ice." Haug predicted that his union will not be released from mediation for at least a year.

Union president Lloyd Hill said the freeze probably applies to the entire airline industry and no union in particular.

Hill and the union's negotiating team met mediation board members several months ago. The federal officials brought up "the economic turmoil they perceive in the airline industry, the overall economic cycle and the fact American Airlines has three groups in ... mediation," Hill said.

"And they made a broad-brush comment that you can probably expect that nobody near term is going to get released [from mediation]," he said.

Careful path

The Railway Labor Act, which governs airline labor relations, sets out a careful path to agreements or strikes. The National Mediation Board must first appoint a mediator, who works with the airline and union to try to reach a deal.

If the mediator concludes that the talks have come to an impasse, the board will proffer binding arbitration to both parties. If either side turns down arbitration, the board releases them from mediation and starts a 30-day clock.

After that cooling-off period ends, either side can legally engage in "self help," such as an imposed contract or a strike.

The existing union contracts became amendable (airline contracts never expire) on May 1, 2008. A combination of events has brought about the current stalemate:

• American's unions made massive concessions in 2003 to keep the airline out of bankruptcy, in hurried deals negotiated in less than two months. Average salaries remain far below their pre-2003 levels. Employees want as much money back as possible.
• American, which briefly enjoyed a cost advantage over some major carriers, saw those rivals – Delta Air Lines Inc., United Airlines Inc., Northwest Airlines Inc. and US Airways Inc. – go into bankruptcy court and reduce their employee costs. American wants at least parity with those competitors.
• Industry's profits went into free fall in 2008 as fuel costs soared. Although energy prices moderated, the economy then went into the tank in late 2008. Traffic dropped precipitously, particularly among the high-paying, highly profitable business travelers.

The International Air Transport Association says the industry worldwide lost $16.8 billion in 2008 and will lose $11 billion in 2009 and $3.8 billion in 2010.

Jeff Brundage, American's top negotiator as senior vice president of human resources, said the spate of bankruptcies created an "unusual situation" in the airline industry.

Typically, other airlines should have higher labor costs because they signed contracts after American's 2003 contracts, he said. But American's rivals obtained even deeper concessions because of their bankruptcies.

"It has left American in a position where we have the highest block-hour costs and some of the absolutely highest wages in the industry," he said. As a result, American is bargaining for increased productivity to cut its costs.

"These are tough conversations, hard conversations in light of the situation over the past decade," Brundage said.

Stock acrimony

Compounding employee unhappiness has been the annual stock awards made to close to 1,000 American executives, managers and "key employees."

While the carrier defends the stock awards as part of the variable compensation plans for top people, the bonuses under the "performance unit plan" have become a continuing rallying cry for union leaders and their members.

A common complaint: Employees' sacrifices are paying for executives' stock.

"They've taken a quarter-billion dollars just in PUP bonuses alone," Hill said. "That doesn't even talk about their stock appreciation rights or base compensation or the many other forms of compensation. ... The employees want to participate at the same level that management is."

If the unions push now to be released from mediation, they face the prospect of trying to make their case when American is bleeding money.

American has been particularly hard hit by the industry downturn. It has lost more than $3 billion since the start of 2008 and more than $10 billion since 2001.

In the past eight years, It has been profitable in only two of the last eight years – 2006 and 2007. Analysts expect the carrier to lose more than $200 million in 2010.

Flight attendants union president Laura Glading, who won her office last year on a "restore and more" platform, acknowledged the tough times now but said the airline has never found a good time to reward rank-and-file employees.

"It's always something. I've been with American for almost 32 years, and there's a transition plan; an expansion plan; there are low-cost carriers; it's the economy. There's always something," she said. "The company never has the money to pay the flight attendants.

"You can't bargain a cycle," she said. "You can't predict the cycles. Right now, we're in a down economic cycle. At some point, we're going to be in an up economic cycle."

The transport workers' international vice president John Conley, who as director of the union's air transport division is responsible for its side of the table, said it's probably not time to ask the National Mediation Board to declare an impasse in the TWU talks.

With negotiations scheduled into next year and four agreements with American Eagle employees also in discussions, "we have a huge oar in the water, a huge stake," he said. "I don't think we're quite at that point yet."

Brundage said it's premature to talk about asking the mediation board to declare an impasse and release the airline and unions from mediation.

"The standard for release is for the board to come to the conclusion that further mediatory efforts are unlikely to produce a result," he said.

"We have a significant number of open items in each of our negotiations. We are making progress on all those items," he said. "I think it's inappropriate to even speculate on that at this point because we're doing what the law requires on both sides."

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Transport Workers Union launches campaign aimed at airlines that use overseas maintenance

By Joshua Freed, AP Airlines Writer

The union that represents mechanics at American Airlines plans to launch a publicity campaign on Wednesday aimed at steering travelers away from airplanes maintained overseas.

American Airlines does its own maintenance at facilities in the U.S. But the union said it's frustrated that other carriers aren't playing by the same rules.

Union members plan to hand out leaflets to members of the Senate beginning on Wednesday, in part because the Senate is debating reauthorization for the Federal Aviation Administration, said TWU spokesman Jamie Horwitz.

Early next year it expects to distribute the leaflets at airports, as well as run ads in newspapers in hub cities of airlines that have maintenance work done overseas, Horwitz said. It's starting in the Senate because Senators are working on an FAA bill that would mandate more inspections of some overseas maintenance operations.

The Transport Workers Union is trying to apply pressure over something that the flying public has not taken much notice of.

Several of the biggest airlines, including Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest airlines Co., send planes to overseas repair shops. A report by the Transportation Department's inspector general last year found that U.S. oversight of repair facilities is lagging, and that the FAA has failed to closely track how much maintenance is outsourced and where it is performed. But there has been little evidence that travelers are going to any lengths to avoid such carriers.

It would be to the union's advantage if travelers preferred airlines like American that do their own maintenance. But Don Videtich, a TWU international representative for maintenance workers, said that's not why they're trying to focus attention on the issue.

"We just want a level playing field where we know they have the same oversight, they're dealing with the same things we're dealing with, and they're required to meet the same requirements that we are," he said.

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NYC Reformers Rise Again--In Transit And Teamsterdom
Insurgents win hard-fought union elections, pledge rank-and-file focus

By Steve Early

Wednesday December 9

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5283/nyc_reformers_rise_againin_transit_and_teamsterdom/

The rise, fall, and rise again of union reformers is a familiar story line in American labor. To some observers, in fact, it's a source of much cynicism about the whole project of union democracy and reform.

The day-to-day demands of full-time elected office, combined with heavy pressure to conform to the norms of business unionism, has led more than a few rank-and-file heroes down the primrose path, sooner or later.

After reformers get elected, their "Si se puede" campaign rhetoric has been known to give way to a litany of excuses about why "we can't" -- empower members, fight the boss, or "build a new union," as promised during the campaign. There are, fortunately, always some committed activists ready to push the boulder of reform back up the hill again. But, starting over is never easy. It requires winning support from fellow workers now angry, frustrated and/or disillusioned by the actual or perceived failure of previous insurgencies.

Two iconic New York City labor unions--TWU Local 100 and Teamsters Local 804--provide a recent case in point.

The trouble with top-down 'reform'

Local 100 of the Transport Workers has 38,000 subway worker and bus driver members. In 2000, a Caribbean-born track worker--bearing the name of a great 18th century liberator--took office as the presidential candidate of the "New Directions" caucus.

Roger Toussaint was a battle-tested militant, with a left-wing political background, previously fired by the Transit Authority. His New Directions comrades-in-arms had contested many earlier elections, less successfully. They had also spent two decades or more trying to
strengthen the union, from the bottom up, through workplace agitation and organizing, a story well told in "Hell on Wheels," a Solidarity pamphlet by Steve Downs, the elected chairperson of Local 100's Train Operators Division. (See www.solidarity-us.org for ordering info).

In office, as Downs recounts, it didn't take Toussaint long to create a personal patronage machine, rather than "the democratic, member-run union that New Directions and thousands of the local's members had fought for." Reform of the local became "a top-down, staff-driven process...Officers and members who pushed for a more participatory approach were frozen out."

As a result, Local 100 was in weak organizational shape when it skimped on contract campaigning in 2005 and then conducted a brave but bungled strike against the Transit Authority anyway. The dispute ended with healthcare give-backs, internal discord, costly fines for both members and their union, and loss of automatic dues deduction. This last penalty has left Local 100 with a very big "open shop."

Only 18,000 out of 38,000 workers are still supporting TWU financially. The local's deeply eroded and demoralized stewards' network -- long neglected by Toussaint -- has been unable to collect more voluntary dues or do much else to enforce the contract, except in
remaining pockets of workplace self-organization and activity.

By 2006, the increasingly unpopular Local 100 president had to rely on a divided field of challengers to win re-election with only 43% of the vote. As reported accurately by no less an authority than Wikipedia, Toussaint soon came under renewed factional "criticism
as he began removing union officers who were elected on opposition slates and began working more closely with New York City Transit management."

The rise--and decline--of a Teamsters local

In Teamsters Local 804, based in Queens, the trajectory from militancy to complacency, demobilization, and de facto company unionism occurred in a better-known national context. 804 is the home local of Ron Carey, who died of lung cancer a year ago. In the 1970s and
'80s, under his leadership, 804 was a formidable island of rank-and-file resistance to the largest Teamster employer in the country, United Parcel Service. In those days, Carey and his members were surrounded by a cesspool of Teamster corruption and gangsterism in New York City and New Jersey, plus union collaboration with UPS management just about everywhere else.

In 1989-91, Carey joined forces with Teamsters for a Democratic Union to wage a successful grassroots campaign to oust old guard officials at the national union level. Carey's six tumultuous but productive years as IBT president in Washington reached their peak with
the Teamsters' 1997 strike victory over UPS; shortly, thereafter, he was forced to step down from office in a re-election campaign fundraising scandal, which also led to his indictment. Acquitted of all charges in 2001, he remained painfully banned from having any contact with his former co-workers in 804.

Over time, Carey's successors in the leadership of this 7,000-member UPS local drifted into the camp of current Teamster President James Hoffa. Two years ago, they gladly went along with a Hoffa-engineered UPS contract settlement that was overturned, in 804 at least, by dissatisfied members. The TDU-backed rank-and-file campaign against concessions in the 804 local supplement to the UPS national contract forced management to put a better offer on the table.

The final deal reversed a 30-percent pension cut, stopped a proposed wage cut, and saved the "25 & Out" retirement option that was the key legacy of the Carey years. In a fatal pique of annoyance over this political setback for them, Local 804 officials didn't even send
flowers to the funeral home or attend the wake when Carey died a year ago. At a memorial service for him last February, hundreds of UPSers showed up, angry and determined to avenge the slight -- and take back their union--at the polls this fall.

Two election victories for insurgent reformers

In Local 100, that's exactly what the anti-Toussaint forces called themselves -- Take Back Our Union (TBOU). Roger himself wasn't on this week's election ballot because he now has a high-paid staff job with the TWU's tiny and not very helpful national organization, whose
failings he long criticized (during his previous incarnation as a rank-and-file militant and, for a few years, dissident local leader).

Instead, a candidate backed by Toussaint squared off against John Samuelsen, a Brooklyn-born Local 100 vice-president with a long history of activism around track safety issues and the fight against contracting out.

On Monday, Dec. 7, Samuelsen's multi-racial TBOU team won all four local-wide officer positions, including the presidency and four out of seven V-P slots. In his own race for the top job, Samuelsen won by nearly 900 votes out of more than 10,000 cast.

Just a few days earlier, on Dec. 3, there was a record turn-out (1,000 more voters than before) in the balloting for 804's officers and executive board members. The TDU-assisted "804 Members United Slate" won all 11 seats, turfing out the hapless Hoffa fans in their union hall by an even larger margin of two to one.

Rank-and-file focus at forefront

In both races, the challengers produced detailed campaign platforms that were strikingly similar. TBOU's stressed the need for an "open, democratic union," "member-driven, clean of corruption," and "single-minded in its resolve to break the cycle of concessionary bargaining." As UPS worker and 804 president-elect Tim Sylvester explained last week,

When they take office like Sylvester in January, Samuelsen and his running-mates--Izzy Rivera, Benita Johnson, and Angel Giboyeaux--will face an Augean stable full of accumulated organizational and financial problems. High on their "to-do" list will be a systematic membership drive (to get delinquent dues payers back into the TWU fold) and a push to get disputed 2005 contract issues resolved.

Unusual among U.S. trade unionists at the moment, Samuelsen has a singular focus on "building rank-and-file power and re-establishing union strength in the workplace." At a day-long transition planning discussion, held in Manhattan last month with ninety TBOU supporters, John kept returning to the theme that Local 100 wouldn't become a "powerhouse" in NY labor again until it first re-built "layers of density" on the shop-floor, fought to "control the pace of work," and tackled, rather than ignored, day-to-day problems like the "disgusting condition" of subway employee bathrooms.

At a time when unions like SEIU are downplaying the role of workplace representation and any fight over working conditions--and, in some cases, even replacing stewards with "call centers"--Samuelsen talks non-stop about the centrality of elected shop stewards, who can't simply be replaced with "loyal bums" at the whim of a local president.

He believes stewards should be trained and encouraged to deal directly with management as "on-site dispute handlers" and key contract enforcers. In the legislative/political arena, he thinks Local 100 should rely less on high-priced lobbyists and consultants or union check-writing to politicians. He wants more rank-and-file members to run for office themselves and pressure public officials directly, in their own neighborhoods and communities.

The 42-year-old Samuelson is particularly concerned about the challenge of reaching younger, newly hired transit workers. In a pre-election message to them, he warned of a Transit Authority management that has "stepped up its abuse of our members and routinely
violates our contract." The Toussaint regime's abandonment of "any real attempt to mobilize the membership to defend our jobs" has produced a union "in full retreat on safety, discipline, job picks, and seniority rights."

Now faced with the challenge of actually stopping that retreat and finding ways for Local 100 to go on the offensive again, Samuelsen and his slate will need all the help they can get from members, new and old, next year, as will those picking up Ron Carey's banner in
Teamsters Local 804.

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From Justin Ruben at MoveOn.Org Political Action
moveon-help@list.moveon.org

The health care debate has so many moving parts that it's hard for anybody to keep them straight. So we decided to put together an overview of where we're at—both good and bad—and what we're all going to need to keep fighting for.

Neither of these bills is close to perfect. But we're entering the home stretch where we risk losing a lot of what's good in these bills and where we have a huge opportunity to strengthen the parts that need work.

Here's where we are:

The House of Representatives passed their bill last month. The Senate is aiming to pass its version before Christmas.

Overall, both pieces of legislation would do four major things:

• Create a "Health Insurance Exchange." The bills create a one-stop marketplace where people can choose from various insurance plans, including the public option. The details aren't set yet, but initially the Exchange would likely be open to the self-employed, people without insurance at work, and small businesses.1 The key with the Exchange is that it brings "the bargaining power and scale that's generally accessible only to large employers" to individuals—and with that, lower costs and better options.2
• Provide insurance to over 30 million more people. The House bill would expand coverage to 36 million people by 2019. The Senate bill extends coverage to 31 million.3
• Outlaw discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and gender. Insurance companies will have to stop denying coverage to people with "pre-existing conditions." And they won't be allowed to charge women more than men for the same coverage.4
• Eliminate coverage limits and price-gouging. The bills differ on some details, but in general would place limits on how much people have to pay for health care beyond their premiums. They both cap out-of-pocket costs and ban insurance companies from setting limits on how much health care they'll cover for a person each year.5

Of course, the devil is in the details, and much in these bills still needs work.

Here's what still needs to be fixed:

• Both bills leave millions uninsured. The House bill leaves 18 million without insurance in 2019; the Senate bill, 24 million. Neither comes close to the vision for universal coverage so many of us fought for for years. We'll all need to fight to continue to expand coverage in the bills this year, and in the years to come.6
• The Senate public option is weak, and conservatives are pushing to make it weaker. The public option is a core piece of reform that will create real accountability and competition for private insurance—and that's why it's at the center of such a huge fight. While the House bill creates a national public option, the Senate lets states opt out, denying their residents access to it. Plus, conservatives are working to weaken it even more. We're all going to have to fight hard for the strongest version possible.7
• Many reforms don't start quickly enough. While some pieces of reform go into effect right away, the larger structural changes are not scheduled to go into effect until 2013 (House bill) or 2014 (Senate bill). This includes the Exchange, the public option, and subsidies—the major ways coverage will be expanded.8
• Required insurance could still be too expensive for many. Both bills require virtually all Americans to have insurance. But the caps on how much we're expected to pay are way too high, and the subsidies are way too low. Many progressives are working to fix this, but it's going to be a significant fight.9
• Reproductive rights are severely restricted in the House bill. An egregious anti-choice amendment in the bill virtually prohibits anyone purchasing insurance in the Exchange from buying a plan that covers abortion—even if paid for with their own money. We need to make sure the final bill doesn't include this rollback of reproductive rights.10
• The Senate bill could discriminate against lower income workers. The current Senate legislation retains a version of what's called the "free rider" provision, which essentially penalizes employers for hiring lower income workers. This provision needs to be fixed before the bill is finalized.11

There's a lot going on in these bills, and we're all going to need to be vigilant to ensure the good pieces end up in the final bill, and the bad ones are fixed. It's going to be a rocky ride. But if we fight together, we'll come out stronger in the end.

P.S. Check out more about the House bill here and the Senate bill here or here, and see what the impact of reform would be in your state here. If you want to read the full bills, for the House, click here or here (PDF), and for the Senate, here or here (PDF).

Sources:

1. "A Health Insurance Exchange: The Fine Print," The New York Times, August 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85241&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=3

"Health Reform at a Glance: The Health Insurance Exchange," House Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor, July 14, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85665&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=4

2. "Health Insurance Exchanges: The Most Important, Undernoticed Part of Health Reform," The Washington Post, June 16, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85664&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=5

3. "H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act," Congressional Budget Office, November 20, 2009
http://cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10741

"Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Congressional Budget Office, November 18, 2009
http://cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10731

4. "Top 10 Ways Health Insurance Reform Works for You," The Speaker of the House, October 29, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85669&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=6

"How Health Insurance Reform Will Help Your Family," Senate Democratic Policy Committee
http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-responsiblereform.cfm

"Meeting Women's Health Care Needs," The Speaker of the House
http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0327

"Reports on Health Insurance Reform—Women," Senate Democratic Policy Committee
http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-responsiblereform.cfm

5. "Top 10 Ways Health Insurance Reform Works for You," The Speaker of the House, October 29, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85669&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=7

"How Health Insurance Reform Will Help Your Family," Senate Democratic Policy Committee
http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-responsiblereform.cfm

6. "H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act," Congressional Budget Office, November 20, 2009
http://cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10741

"Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Congressional Budget Office, November 18, 2009
http://cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10731

"REPORT: How the Senate Bill Compares to Other Reform Legislation," Think Progress, November 19, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85670&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=8

7. "Sen. Reid Announces 'Opt Out' Public Plan," The New York Times, October 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85673&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=9

"Carper: Conservative Democrats Not Likely To Support Senate Public Option," Talking Points Memo, November 17, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85675&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=10

8. "Top 14 Provisions That Take Effect Immediately," The Speaker of the House
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85676&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=11

"What happens before 2014?" The Washington Post, November 19, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85677&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=12

"Senate, House Democratic health bills compared," The Associated Press, November 18, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85667&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=13

9. "The Details of The New Merged Senate Bill," Think Progress, November 18, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85668&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=14

"REPORT: How the Senate Bill Compares to Other Reform Legislation," Think Progress, November 19, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85670&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=15

"Analysis: How the Senate health care bill stacks up with the House health care bill," Think Progress, November 19, 2009
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/19/senate-house-comparison/

10. "The Ban on Abortion Coverage," The New York Times, November 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/opinion/10tue1.html

11. "The noxious 'free rider' provision," The Washington Post, November 25, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85671&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=16

"Senate Health Bill Improves Employer Responsibility Provision," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, November 19, 2009
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3003

"The Baucus Bill: The Worst Policy in the Bill, and Possibly in the World," The Washington Post, September 16, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85672&id=18172-17306336-KwWh_sx&t=17

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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From the TTD...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2009

CONTACT: Jenifer McCormick
202-628-9262
jeniferm@ttd.org

Transportation Labor Supports NMB’s Proposed
Rule Changes for Airline and Rail Union Elections

WASHINGTON, DC – Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), appeared at a public hearing today to support the National Mediation Board’s proposed rule changes for airline and railroad union elections. Below are excerpts from his submitted statement:

“Currently, an absolute majority of all eligible employees in a craft or class is required to cast a ballot to merely certify an election and all non-voters are assigned automatic ‘no’ votes. This method of discerning voter intent is inherently flawed and unreliable. By automatically assigning non-participating voters a ‘no’ vote in opposition of a union, the current voting procedures are essentially declaring intent when none is expressed.

“The unreliable and arbitrary nature of the Board’s election procedures place rail and aviation workers in a unique and unfair electoral category, completely detached from the democratic norms lying at the heart of any representational election.

“The NMB’s election procedures are also an anomaly in the realm of American labor-management relations. Workers in all other areas of the economy, including those in both the private and public sectors, are afforded the right to definitively affirm or reject representation by a majority vote of those who participate.

“This compulsory voting standard has, in turn, fostered a unique culture of voter suppression as companies understand that impeding union organizing merely requires preventing employees from voting. During union elections, companies seek to decrease voter turnout and thereby defeat an organizing drive not by winning an actual vote on the merits, but rather through carefully managing a low turnout.

“The new ballot will allow employees to vote ‘yes’, ‘no’ or abstain from voting and let a majority of those participating prevail. Such a standard provides each employee a precise choice when voting and ensures the equality of every vote.

“Critics claim the NMB should not change its procedures because potential organizing campaigns will benefit. If the Board was precluded from updating its representation rules based on this rationale, the agency would never be able to change its rules. For the opponents of this rule there will never be an appropriate time to implement the proposal. In truth, their opposition has nothing to do with timing, but everything to do with derailing the proposal altogether.

“Meanwhile, industry apologists continue to suggest that the NMB’s anomalous threshold is a necessary, if not required, mechanism for preventing economic upheaval created by strikes. Although it is certainly true that the RLA is designed to limit disruptions to interstate commerce, the Board’s election procedures have absolutely no bearing on this matter. The proposed rule in no way changes the NMB’s mediation procedures and has no material effect on the Board’s mechanisms used to drive the negotiating and mediation process toward consensual collective bargaining agreements and to avoid potentially disruptive disputes.

“It is time to permit airline and rail workers to vote on the question of unionization under the same democratic standards used in all other elections – from union elections conducted under other labor laws to Congressional elections. The Board has proposed sensible reforms that will accomplish this goal.”

The full written testimony is available on TTD's website by clicking here.

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The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, represents 32 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org.