Why Is Rep. Petri Attempting to Silence Workers' Voices?

In Shades of Gov. Walker’s Assault on Unions, Rep. Petri Seeks to Advance Egregious Anti-Worker Measure Through FAA Bill in Congress

Contact: Michael Earls, 202-261-2388

Washington — At a time when ideologically-motivated assaults on workers remain salient and unpopular among his constituents back in Wisconsin, Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) is nonetheless attempting to advance a measure in Washington that could be ripped from the anti-union playbook of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

As chair of the Aviation Subcommittee in the U.S. House, Rep. Petri is playing a lead role in advancing a measure that would treat union elections for air and rail workers differently from every other type of American election, while stacking the decks against workers’ ability to collectively bargain. As a result, the FAA Reauthorization bill, which would mean jobs and aviation safety updates for Wisconsin and across the country, is becoming a national flash-point over basic worker rights.

On April 1^st, the U.S. House passed the FAA Reauthorization bill, which includes an egregious and unfair provision regarding election rules for aviation and rail unions. Elections in our nation operate by the principle that we only count ballots actually cast. Yet the House version of the FAA legislation would count eligible voters who did not participate in a union election the same as actually having voted “No.” Under these unfair election rules, workers have little chance to form a union and collectively bargain.

As this battle over basic fairness moves to the conference committee process, Rep. Petri will be one of the conferees to reconcile the Senate version, which passed that chamber without the unfair union elections provision, with the House’s version, which includes this egregious and unfair provision.

Notably, the union elections provision in the House version of the bill would treat air/rail union elections differently from every other type of election in our nation, union or non-union. If congressional elections proceeded under the proposed rules for the NMB elections, no current Members of Congress would have won their last election. In fact, if votes for their actual opponent in their previous election were tallied together with non-voting eligible voters, as the proposed NMB election rules would do, Rep. Petri would have received only 35.2% of the vote in his 2010 re-election campaign. While this may seem a ridiculous model for conducting a congressional election, that’s exactly the point. If such a standard is unfair for Members of Congress, it is unfair for all elections in our nation. The only votes that should count in an election are ones that are actually cast.

Separate from the issue of basic fairness, it makes little sense to saddle the larger, important FAA legislation with this unrelated union-busting provision. The FAA bill includes critical direction to bolster our national air traffic control infrastructure with technology and safety upgrades, to the benefit of air travelers, airports, and airlines’ bottom lines. Already, the Obama Administration has threatened to veto the FAA bill if the unfair elections provision remains in the legislation after conference negotiations – why would Rep. Petri want to slow down the numerous benefits of the larger FAA bill by recklessly including the unrelated and divisive union provision?

As the House and Senate negotiate the different versions of the FAA bill during the conference process, Rep. Petri should recognize that keeping the unfair NMB elections provision in the larger legislation makes little sense to his constituents back in Wisconsin, those caring about the key benefits of the rest of the FAA bill, and those who care about preserving the dignity of the process of American elections.

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