Fight to Save Democratic Airline Union Elections Continues

House-Senate Conference Committee Takes Up FAA Reauthorization Bill

Bowing to airline executives angry about new democratic rules for union elections, the U.S. House defeated a bipartisan amendment last week intended to preserve the important changes the National Mediation Board made last year.

The AFA-CWA-supported amendment, sponsored by Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) failed by a 206-220 vote. As a result, anti-union language overturning the NMB changes remains in the FAA Reauthorization Bill.

The fight to save the democratic election rules now moves to a conference committee, where differences between the House and Senate versions of the FAA legislation will be worked out.

The Senate's FAA legislation does not contain the anti-worker provision, and CWA will be working with senators in both parties to make sure the Senate version prevails. If not, the Obama administration has threatened to veto the entire FAA bill.

Specifically, the provision in the House bill would return airline and railroad union elections to past rules, in which eligible voters who don't cast ballots are counted as "No" votes. If such standards were applied to federal elections, no one in Congress today could have won election in 2010. Under the new NMB rules, the airline and railroad elections would be treated like all others: Only the votes cast are counted.

The amendment's defeat in the House followed intense lobbying by anti-union groups and a campaign by Delta Airlines. The company gave employees "free flights to Washington to lobby against liberalizing union rules for airline workers," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.