NMB Drops Anti-Union Proposal after AFA-CWA Protests

After pressure from AFA-CWA, other transportation unions and members of Congress, the National Mediation Board announced that it will drop – for now -- a proposal that would make it more difficult for airline workers to maintain their union representation following a merger with non-union carriers.

AFA President Pat Friend and CWA President Larry Cohen called on Congress to hold a hearing on the proposal and to investigate the board's increasingly anti-worker policies. That hearing is set for Sept. 24 before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In July, the NMB proposed some radical changes to longstanding policies that maintain union representation and recognition at the newly merged carrier if union employees make up 60 percent of the combined pertinent workforce.

The NMB wanted to rewrite the law so recognition would be required only when the union represented a "substantial majority" of the combined workforce - but without defining what substantial majority means. Leaving the interpretation up to the NMB would be disastrous considering the current board's poor track record in safeguarding workers' right to organize and its failure to address the growing anti-union tactics by airline management.

The timing of the board's proposal -- before the pending Northwest-Delta merger -- was suspicious since the NMB is chaired by a former lobbyist for Northwest.

"Our challenge to Congress to increase its oversight of the NMB does not stop with the NMB's reversal of one biased proposal," stated AFA President Friend. "We continue to demand that Congress keep vigil over this agency."