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CWA to Continue Helping Passenger Agents Win Union Representation at American Airlines
CWA will continue assisting American Airlines passenger service agents in their drive to unionize despite a ruling denying the union's request for an immediate rerun election based on flagrant abuses by management during the previous representation vote late last year. "We are going to stand by the thousands of passenger agents who want a union and help them build an even stronger organization, and eventually win full representation rights," said President Morton Bahr.
The National Mediation Board, which regulates labor relations in the airline industry, declined to order an expedited rerun despite evidence that airline management engaged in illegal coercion and intimidation of the workers and denied union organizers access to traditional employee forums while itself conducting a vicious anti-union propaganda campaign. Under the ruling, agents will now have to wait one year before a new election can be held, although CWA will file to make the one-year election "bar" effective from last Dec. 15.
In the election last year, some 5,800 American agents, representing 41 percent of the workforce, cast ballots for union representation. However, under the Railway Labor Act, a majority of the entire unit - not just a majority of those voting - must cast ballots in order for the election to be valid.
"By that standard no President or member of Congress would ever be elected to office," noted Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, director of organizing. "So the deck is stacked against airline workers from the beginning, and on top of that, outrageous abuses by management go unpunished," he commented.
"This ruling has made the activists at American even more determined to win union recognition," said Cohen. He said CWA will continue to build a CWA passenger service organization to represent not only US Airways agents, where CWA has won bargaining rights, but also to represent the interests of American agents and reach out to unorganized groups at other airlines.
The National Mediation Board, which regulates labor relations in the airline industry, declined to order an expedited rerun despite evidence that airline management engaged in illegal coercion and intimidation of the workers and denied union organizers access to traditional employee forums while itself conducting a vicious anti-union propaganda campaign. Under the ruling, agents will now have to wait one year before a new election can be held, although CWA will file to make the one-year election "bar" effective from last Dec. 15.
In the election last year, some 5,800 American agents, representing 41 percent of the workforce, cast ballots for union representation. However, under the Railway Labor Act, a majority of the entire unit - not just a majority of those voting - must cast ballots in order for the election to be valid.
"By that standard no President or member of Congress would ever be elected to office," noted Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, director of organizing. "So the deck is stacked against airline workers from the beginning, and on top of that, outrageous abuses by management go unpunished," he commented.
"This ruling has made the activists at American even more determined to win union recognition," said Cohen. He said CWA will continue to build a CWA passenger service organization to represent not only US Airways agents, where CWA has won bargaining rights, but also to represent the interests of American agents and reach out to unorganized groups at other airlines.