American Airlines is asking a federal judge for a preliminary injunction to stop its passenger service agents from holding a union representation vote starting next week.
The request, made in federal district court in Fort Worth on Monday, came after the National Mediation Board said the representation election could move forward even though the airline had not provided mailing addresses for the employees to the board.The Communications Workers of America is trying to organize about 9,700 passenger service agents who work in reservation centers and at ticket counters for American Airlines."American believes the court should be able to rule on whether the NMB's authorization of the election was legally permitted before any election begins," American spokeswoman Missy Cousino said. In May, American filed a lawsuit challenging the election, saying the union did not collect enough authorization cards from the agents.The union, however, said the Fort Worth-based carrier is doing everything it can to stop the election, which is set to begin June 21 and conclude Aug. 2."Why is American Airlines so afraid of agents exercising their democratic right to vote? The airline is doing everything it can think of to stop passenger service agents from having the vote they deserve, even filing court actions based on claims that have been rejected by lawmakers who wrote the legislation being cited," said the union's organizing director, Sandy Rusher.The union also cited a May 15 letter from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and two other senators that refutes American's claim that the recently passed Federal Aviation Administration bill would retroactively affect the union election. American has said the union did not collect enough authorization cards from workers to meet the new 50 percent standard that was enacted in February.This is the second time that the union has tried to organize American's passenger service agents. In 1998, workers rejected the effort, with only 41 percent of those eligible voting to join the union. At the time, American had more than 14,000 agents.In this drive, the union has accused American of trying to delay the process by not providing mailing labels to the mediation board.The union had asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to prevent American from laying off agents and cutting their wages as part of its restructuring plan. The court denied the union's request.American completed court-ordered mediated talks with the mechanics and stock clerks groups represented by the Transport Workers Union on Tuesday.The airline is scheduled to restart talks with its pilots union today.Separately, American and technology firm HP will no longer work together to develop a new passenger service system. According to a bankruptcy filing made last week, American and HP agreed to terminate their agreement after working on the project for more than two years."During that time, however, the Parties have been unable to reach agreement on a number of key issues affecting the project's direction and it became clear that an orderly termination of the PSS Agreement was in the best interests of both parties," the filing said.Andrea Ahles, 817-390-7631Twitter: @Sky_Talk