|
|
 American Airlines has told the National Mediation Board that it does not want to enter into arbitration with the labor unions. The airline also argued that it should be allowed to work within the rules of bankruptcy to reach new contract agreements or the bankruptcy judge should set new terms. Unions representing American pilots, flight attendants and ground crews appealed to the NMB on March 8 to intervene in the bankruptcy process telling the Board they would agree in advance to accept binding arbitration from the Board. Surprised?
The company contends there is no legal or historic precedent for involving the NMB in its union negotiations, calling the union’s ploy nothing more than a last resort public relations strategy.
Of course, union officials disagree. “We
Continue reading American Says No to Arbitration Ploy
 The American Spectator ran an article co-authored by LRI VP and senior consultant, Russ Brown.
The House compromise with Harry Reid on the FFA funding bill missed the opportunity to roll back recently enacted changes to election rules under the Railway Labor Act, affecting especially the transportation industry. The House caved and accepted cosmetic giveaways by Reid, essentially leaving the rule as recently changed by the National Media Board intact.
  
 The CWA, parent union of the Flight Attendants union, and the Transportation Workers Union announced a new “partnership” last week that is supposed to combine their forces as needed to bargain tough contracts and lobby lawmakers on transportation issues. However the two unions already appear to be on opposite sides of the primary transportation issue of the moment, the FAA funding compromise that recently passed both the House and Senate by wide margins.
The TWU has said they can “live within” the compromise that retains last year’s “voter majority” rule change while setting a new higher 55% threshold for a union’s show of interest. The compromise also allows the two top vote getters, including the company, to run off after a three-way election without a
Continue reading New Union Partners Disagree on FAA Compromise
Eighteen unions have signed on to a statement against the Senate FAA funding compromise in but another jaw-dropping example of union hypocrisy and hubris.
“The proposed Railway Labor Act changes would drastically rewrite a statute that was crafted by labor-management cooperation and has not been changed for over 75 years without the agreement of both employer and employee representatives…
A rewrite of long standing labor law deserves proper and due consideration through the normal deliberative process. Acting otherwise directly conflicts with the non-partisan recommendations of the 1994 Report of the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations…Unilaterally changing that law without labor’s input and without due deliberation threatens to unravel its carefully balanced goals of labor stability and uninterrupted commerce.”
It’s unclear if the
Continue reading Union Hypocrisy Over FAA Compromise
Lawmakers reached a compromise Friday that will change the process for NMB union elections in the transportation industry. The compromise paves the way for passage of long-term funding for the FAA. Republicans have blocked a long-term funding bill until union friendly changes to the NMB process made in 2010 were rolled back.
Unions elections will still be decided by a simple majority, but unions will now have to sign up 50% of effected workers on cards. (They currently need 35%) Most unions do not file unless they have 50% on cards now. Another change would allow for a run-off election between the top two vote-getters, even if one of those two is the option of “no union.” Currently if two unions are on the ballot and the company does not win with a simple majority the two unions run off under the assumption that a majority of voters
Continue reading Breaking: Compromise Reached on NMB Election Process
Russ Brown, a vice president at LRI and adjunct analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, co-authored an article for the American Spectator with Ivan Osorio, editorial director and labor policy analyst at the CEI. The article dealt with the recent election rule change made by the National Mediation Board. Quoting from the article:
Last year, the National Mediation Board (NMB), the government agency charged with overseeing labor relations in the railroad and airlines industries, changed voting rules to favor unionization. On Friday, December 16, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia upheld the rule change as consistent with the Railway Labor Act (RLA).
However, as dissenting Circuit Judge Karen Henderson explained, the NMB failed to provide any justification for changing a
Continue reading LRI VP Addresses NMB Rule Change in American Spectator
Nearly 4000 people are out of work today and the government is losing $200M a week in uncollected taxes on airfares as the Senate failed to pass either longterm or temporarily funding of the FAA on Friday. The Senate passed a long term funding bill for the agency in February and the GOP controlled House passed a different version in April that also overturned changes to the union election process for transportation workers. Last year the National Mediation Board replaced the unit majority election process that had been in place for 75 years to a process that favors unions.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is insisting the new union friendly election rules must be maintained for the Senate to move forward on long term FAA funding. Senate Republicans have blocked what would be the 21st temporary funding of the agency which has not been permanently funded since 2007.
The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) today issued the following list of rules, complaints and actions President Obama’s “independent” agencies can shed or refrain from enacting in an effort to create jobs and restore economic growth:
1) NLRB: Rescind complaint against the Boeing Company.
2) NLRB: Withhold issuance of ruling in Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile.
3) NLRB: Cease activity on proposed rule closing the election window from 38 days to just over a week.
4) NLRB: Refrain from instituting organizing elections that are offsite or employ electronic technology.
5) NLRB: Withdraw decision
Continue reading WFI: Ten Ways to Spur Economic Growth
 The National Mediation Board has just launched an “Expedited Mediation Project,” a move thought consistent with Big Labor’s ongoing push for accelerated bargaining. The program may allow unions to exert new pressure to speed up the bargaining process, either through direct use of the project or through the threat an employer could seem unreasonable to the NMB for not agreeing to it. Details to come.
The NMB also announced that, as predicted, it will broadened its investigation of Delta to include interference allegations by the IAM from last winter’s failed attempt to organize ramp and gate agents. As we reported in the last issue of INK, the NMB is investigating the Delta flight attendant election based in large part on the AFA-CWA contention that election turnout was unreasonably high. For their part, the Machinists
Continue reading Union Bailout Update
Last week the Workforce Fairness Institute posed an interesting question: which arm of the Obama Administration is killing more jobs, the NLRB or the National Mediation Board? And while the NLRB just issued a rare pro business ruling (!) and the Boeing case is simmering on a back burner, the NMB again takes the lead.
The NMB has announced a full-scale investigation into last fall’s long anticipated Delta flight attendant election, the largest union election since 1935. Of the 18,760 votes cast 51% voted no union, 46% voted for the Association of Flight Attendants -CWA and the remaining votes went to write-ins. The investigation renews concerns for Big Labor’s influence over the NMB which last year inexplicably overturned seven decades of precedent to do away with majority rule in transportation elections,
Continue reading Union Bailout Update
|
American Airlines has told the National Mediation Board that it does not want to enter into arbitration with the labor unions. The airline also argued that it should be allowed to work within the rules of bankruptcy to reach new contract agreements or the bankruptcy judge should set new terms. Unions representing American pilots, flight attendants and ground crews appealed to the NMB on March 8 to intervene in the bankruptcy process telling the Board they would agree in advance to accept binding arbitration from the Board. Surprised?
