NMB Election NPRM

The NMB issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on changing its election procedure. The NPRM can be found here:

http://www.nmb.gov/representation/repvotingproposal_11-03-09.pdf

Mr. Pink

I hope they get rule change. Long overdue in my opinion.
JoeC (McGruff)

The NMB will announced in todays Federal Register that it is adopting its proposed majority-vote rule. The final rule is virtually identical to the proposed rule Mr. Pink posted on last year. In essence, the rule would generally allow a union to be elected by a majority of votes cast, which is a significant change from the previous rule requiring a majority of all employees eligible to vote. The rule does not create a similar process for decert efforts.

But the rectums are in motion, Megan Kelly on Fox did not do her home work, and made constant reference to poling places, and posed questions such as: what happens if an employee cant make it to the polling place, and what will happen to the cost of airline tickets, and she laid out other dooms day scenarios.

The fact is there is no polling places the elections ballots are mailed to the employees home, and there is deadline for responses which can be phoned in or cast to the NMB on their website. In the past managers would reward employees who handed over their ballots unopened, those shenanigans are over.

The airlines are going to sue but I doubt it will go any were. There were public hearings and had their say already.

Another rectum U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson ( R-Ga. cyjeff country) said he believes the NMB lacks authority to make the change without Congressional authorization. He said he will try to counter the move through the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to disapprove regulations by enacting a joint resolution. Hey go ahead and try it, get the anti-worker lames on the record before November!

What I find so hypocritical is the same people screaming -"card check elections are un-American" have no problem where election results are based on not the out come, but on the number of potential voters. Under the old system if you did not vote it counted as a no vote.

I know of no other election system in the country like that. Imagine if there was a ballot initiative on the local ballot and the ballot passed 75% to 25%, but since not every registered voter voted the initiative failed.

Well, it didn't take the airline industry long to mount a legal challenge to the new voting procedure at the NMB. It is interesting to note that the major carriers, other than Delta, are NOT participating in the lawsuit.


ATA files suit to overturn new NMB rule on union representation
1:36 PM Mon, May 17, 2010


The Air Transport Association filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to stop a National Mediation Board rule that changed the way that unions can win representation at railroads or airlines.

The new rule says that unions can win the right to represent a class of employees by getting a majority of votes cast. The old rule required unions to get a majority of "yes" votes from all the employees eligible to vote, and non-votes were counted as "no" votes.

The trade association of U.S. air carriers alleged that the new rule is "arbitrary and capricious" and contrary to the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations in the rail and airline industry.

The ATA lawsuit says the NMB failed to also let employees decertify a union through a majority of members voting. That "arbitrarily and capriciously discriminates against employees' rights under the RLA to reject union representation."

ATA has a "direct and concrete interest" in the issue, the organization said:

"This interest is immediate, because the ATA's members, including some of those who are participating in this lawsuit, consist in part of airlines that are currently, or in the near future will be, the subject of union organizing campaigns under which labor organizations seek to represent currently unrepresented work groups.
The question of whether employees remain non-represented, and thus interact with their employer on an individualized basis, or instead become represented by a union, and thus interact with their employer on a collective basis, has a profound and long-lasting impact on the day-to-day economic and operational relationships between an employer and its employees.

"Among other things, when a union is certified by the NMB, airlines are constrained in their ability to take employment actions according to their own policies and practices.

"By altering how the question of union representation is resolved in their airline industry, and by permitting the certification of minority-supported unions, the NMB's new rule will likely fundamentally change the legal duties and relationships between many ATA member-airlines and their employees."


The ATA represents most U.S. airlines, but a number are not participating in the lawsuit: American Airlines , Southwest Airlines, Continental Airlines , UPS Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

"We're going to be seeking a hearing on a preliminary injunction prior to June 10," the effective date of the rule, Bob Siegel, attorney for ATA, said in a press call.

He asserted that the Railway Labor Act clearly states that a majority of employees have to vote in favor of representation.

"The agency doesn't have the legal authority to change the statutory authority," he said. "The language is unambiguous."

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/ata-files-suit-to-overturn-new.html

Mr. Pink

Mr. Pink wrote:Well, it didn't take the airline industry long to mount a legal challenge to the new voting procedure at the NMB. It is interesting to note that the major carriers, other than Delta, are NOT participating in the lawsuit.
Mr. Pink

The major carriers are already unionized along with all class I railroad's. The ones that are going to be happy (I hope) are Fedex employees. Fedex unlike their competitor U.P.S were ruled to be under the RLA unlike UPS which is under the NLRA. Under the NLRA one UPS operation can be unionized while the other across town does not have to be. Under the RLA unionization must be system wide, that is nation wide, Fedex did some fancy maneuvering to pull that one off.