Congressional Committee Questions NMB Rules, Effect on Workers' Rights

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure took a close look at the anti-worker policies of the National Mediation Board, with Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) expressing concern that "the deck is stacked against unionization."

Oberstar questioned many of the NMB's policies governing union representation elections for workers in the transportation industry, noting that in many cases, the NMB considers furloughed or inactive workers to be eligible voters.

AFA-CWA President Pat Friend told the committee that "a clear message needs to be sent to the NMB that it can no longer be a party in corporate America's efforts to usurp the stated policy and precedent of Congress to 'encourage unionization and collective bargaining.'"

Commenting on NMB rules requiring that a majority of eligible voters must actually cast ballots in a union election for results to be valid, Oberstar said, "That's a very high bar for a union to organize workers," noting that in public elections the winner only needs a majority of total votes tallied.

The NMB failed to take action against Delta Airlines for waging an intensive "anti-union campaign" that interfered with the rights of flight attendants to have a union voice, Friend said.

At stake is the future of collective bargaining rights for employees at Delta and Northwest Airlines. The airlines' pending merger means that unless 50 percent of the combined 21,000 flight attendants participate in the representation election, the entire vote will be voided and Northwest flight attendants will lose more than 60 years of bargaining rights.