CWA Leaders Want Congressional Hearing on NMB Abuses

Flight attendants at Delta and Northwest are organizing to ensure representation at the merged airline.  Their campaign website, pictured here, is www.Deltaafa.org.

AFA-CWA President Pat Friend and CWA President Larry Cohen have called for a congressional hearing on the conduct of the National Mediation Board before the merger between Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines is finalized. The NMB oversees organizing and bargaining rights for airline and rail workers.

In a letter to House committee chairs George Miller, Education and Labor, and James Oberstar, Transportation and Infrastructure, Friend and Cohen stressed that recent changes to longstanding policies proposed by the NMB are yet another example of the agency's outrageous attempts to thwart the ability of workers in the airline industry to organize, and must be investigated.  

"Specifically, the NMB has failed to even investigate illegal employer misconduct as flight attendants at Delta recently sought to join AFA-CWA. At the same time, the agency is racing to ram through new regulations to make employee representation more difficult," they wrote.

The current chair of the NMB is a former lobbyist for Northwest Airlines at a time when many decisions that affect the merger between Northwest and Delta Airlines are being made, they pointed out.

This board turned a "blind eye to Delta Airline management's unprecedented anti-union, voter suppression campaign" during the recent Delta flight attendant representation election, they noted, even allowing Delta to keep the name of a deceased flight attendant on the eligibility list.

"It is time to shine a spotlight on the overwhelmingly anti-worker policies of this NMB and hold members accountable" for their obvious support of the anti-union actions of corporations like Delta, they wrote.  

Congress also must examine the onerous election rules that have been implemented by the NMB that require a participation rate of 50 percent plus one of the workforce, rather than a simple majority of votes cast. This standard is out of step with every other democratic election in this country, Friend and Cohen said.