The AFL-CIO has issued more puffed propaganda on the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act up for a House vote this week. The bill would repeal last year’s NMB ruling that rewrote the rules for union elections in the airline industry.
The AFL-CIO applies its de rigueur wafer thin logic in comparing apples to apricots, pointing out that no current member of Congress would have been elected using the RLA standard. Nevermind that when 25% of eligible voters send Rep. Apricot to Congress the rest of us in his district aren’t forced to pay him hundreds of dollars a year in campaign contributions just to keep our jobs. And if Apricot proves himself a useless ass we get to vote him out in two years, while union elections are (gulp!) forever.
Previous to the NMB ruling, airline unions needed a majority of all eligible voters to say yes to unionization. The new NMB ruling, patterned after the NLRA, requires only a majority of votes cast to inflict forced dues on the entire bargaining unit. (Right to Work laws don’t apply to industries covered by the RLA.) The bill currently before Congress, without amendments, would essentially overturn that NMB’s decision and restore the election standards of the RLA.
The RLA set its election standards higher than the NLRA for good reason — in the transportation industry organizers can push and pander to voters in a few union-friendly hubs like NYC and LA and effectively black-out and suppress turnout in other regions. And in its cries for democratic majority rule, the AFL-CIO piece fails to mention that when the AFA/CWA lost the Delta flight attendant election last year (the first under the new standards) the union immediately filed objections to the results claiming Delta was too aggressive in getting out the vote. The union’s general counsel stated that the union would have won had the turnout stayed under 90% but because Delta reminded voters of the importance of their vote and made participation too easy the turnout was 94%.
It would seem in Unionland, regardless of their rhetoric, full voter participation is NOT what democracy looks like.
