PRWeezer

More than a year after the vote, IIRC it's still "under investigation."

meh130

The FAA bill is a red herring. There was a change made to union rules regarding the counting of votes to unionize.

The "employer friendly" method required a majority of total work force vote yes (the union claims this treats abstentions as "no" votes). This has been the norm for airline and railroad union elections for the past 75 years.

The "union friendly" method requires only a majority of actual votes be yes.

The National Mediation Board (NMB) changed the rules from the former to the latter after the first DL FA unionization vote. See: America’s Labor Party

Employers hate the "union friendly" method because a union could, in theory, have a quick vote with ten people in a room and effectively impose a union on 10,000 workers. The IAM actually pulled this on a contract vote with Vought Aircraft in Charleston, SC (who build 787 fuselages). They put 12 people in a room and passed a contract which was imposed on 300 workers. Since SC is a right to work state, the rank and file union members got upset and voted to disband the union for forcing a bad contract on them. Boeing bought Vought (and their now non-union workforce) and the IAM (who also represents Boeing in Washington state) ran crying to the NLRB begging for revenge--not against Boeing, mind you, but against the SC workers who dared to throw them out.

DL is in the cross-hairs because the FA union vote was close under the "employer friendly" method. The FA union thinks if it can get another vote, it could pass under the "union friendly" method.

The Republicans have held up the long-term FAA funding bill because the Democrats have added language put into law the NMB's questionable decision.

Here is an brief article on the issue: Union launches campaign on FAA bill

n301dp

The Boeing/Vought unionization case falls under NLRB jurisdiction and not under the purvey of the NMB and the Railway Labor Act. Apples and oranges when it comes to laws related to organizing and contract negotiation.

You will not see a union created by leading x amount of people into a room under the RLA. It's a long process that I'd be happy to explain in a later post if the clarification is needed.

oh912flyer

Incorrect.

It is currently a long process only if you think a month is a long process. But if the unions and the NLRB gets its way, that process could be reduced to as little as ten days.

Some people take vacations longer than that. Imagine coming back to work after a nice trip to discover you'd been unionized in your absence...

DHalltheway

Maybe they should update it to bacon....

mmmmmm.... Bacon..... *Homer Simpson drool*.

On a more serious front, handing unions power will only result in what AF & QF have to go through. Imagine your airline having a week long strike on Memorial day, 4th of July, Christmas and other holidays.

n301dp

The National Labor Relations Board does not have jurisdiction over union matters relating to Delta. The National Mediation Board is tasked with ensuring air and rail companies and unions engaged in interstate transportation follow the rules of the Railway Labor Act. The Vought/Boeing case does not apply here.

To form a union under the RLA, organizers & employees must turn in "authorization cards" (basically a signed postcard stating interest in organization of a union) from 35% of an eligible CRAFT and CLASS of employee (in this case, flight attendants). This is not a vote for or against a union, but rather to get the organization and election process started. Once the NMB certifies that 35% of the eligible employees have sent in cards, "laboratory conditions" exist and put into force several rules about what the company and union can and cannot do before the vote. The AFA challenged that these rules were violated by DL during the organization process (tainting the laboratory conditions).

As per the NMB, the union does not handle elections. The NMB collects the votes by phone or internet during the voting period. "Voting Parties" as you contest are prohibited under the RLA.

meh130

You are correct Vought falls under NLRB, and Railroad/Airlines under NMB/RLA. But the unelected NBM changed the RLA law unilaterally to mirror other union rules (i.e., NLRB). All you have to do is read the many articles covering UPS and FedEx labor issues. UPS was one of the ones to lobby for this change to the RLA because FedEx, as an airline, falls under RLA, while UPS, a trucking company, does not.

And while it may not be possible to establish a union with a vote of a small percentage of the workers, I accurately described the contract vote at Vought.

ClipperDelta

Actually, that's not correct; the DL(with NW) FA election was under the "union-friendly" method already; in fact, the AFA had delayed calling for the FA election until the "union-friendly" method had been enacted.

meh130

Thank you. I stand corrected. For some reason I thought the vote last year passed under the old rule, and the FA union wanted the rule changed prior to getting a chance to revote.