Per Atlanta Journal Constitution article, "Under National Mediation Board rules, employees are guaranteed the right to organize without interference of management."

In other words, it may be a violation of federal law to block this access. If it is, and if it actually is taking place, I'm sure the union is documenting it.

But in any case, there is a hard core chess game going on between union and management, and both seem to be using the press as one of their tools. There is certainly a lot more going on behind the scenes than any of us on FT can see, so we're just speculating on both sides of the issue.