Fri, May 20, 2011
Airline Employees Rejected Union Representation, Claims
Partisan Politics Stifle Voter Choice
Delta Air Lines issued a statement Thursday applauding the
decision of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform to further investigate the National
Mediation Board's (NMB) significant departure from decades of
consistent interpretation of the Railway Labor Act.
In the letter to the Chairman of the NMB, the Committee
expressed its "concern" regarding the NMB's "recent decision to
advance a rule, which allows a minority of employees to determine
union representation." Delta shares the Committee's concern that
there is "evidence tending to show that this change in the rule was
the result of a predetermined effort to advance a partisan policy
agenda."
"This investigation is an important victory for Delta people
because it will finally allow the facts to speak for themselves,"
said Mike Campbell, executive vice president of H.R. and Labor
Relations. "Unfortunately, this is not the only recent occasion
when a federal labor agency has attempted an unprecedented shift in
labor policy at the behest of unions. The Committee's decision to
investigate the questionable circumstances behind the NMB's voting
rule change follows last week's announcement that they would
investigate similar partisan actions involving the National Labor
Relations Board and the Boeing Co."
Delta and Delta people have been targeted by two unions –
the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the International
Association of Machinists (IAM) – and two members of the NMB
in a coordinated attempt to influence the outcome of Delta's union
elections by changing to a minority rules voting process. Union
elections for Delta flight attendants and ground employees were
delayed until new voting rules were implemented. Meanwhile, the NMB
conducted elections at other airlines using the traditional
majority voting rules that had been reviewed and maintained by all
administrations during the past 75 years.
Delta employees waited more than two years for the opportunity
to vote in a representation election. In late 2010, they
participated in elections using the new minority voting rules and
turned out at the polls in record numbers – more than 94
percent of flight attendants and more than 80 percent of ground
employees voted. Across all employee groups, in four elections
covering more than 50,000 employees, the majority of voters said no
to representation by the pre-merger Northwest unions. Today, Delta
people are still waiting for their vote to count.
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