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WASHINGTON — Workers at U.S. airlines and railroads would have an easier time forming unions if the National Mediation Board succeeds in changing a 75-year-old rule on union organizing.
A proposed rule announced Monday would recognize a union if most voting workers favored organizing. Current rules require most of an entire work group to vote for a union for it to be certified. That means workers who don’t vote effectively cast a "no" vote.The issue lies at the center of a dispute at Delta Air Lines. Unions representing flight attendants and ground workers who worked for Northwest Airlines before it was bought by Delta want the new rules to cover elections at the combined carrier."The current rules embrace a veto by silent principle that is not only unfair, it is undemocratic," said Edward Wytkind, head of the AFL-CIO’s transportation trades department. "Just because a worker does not vote doesn’t mean he or she does not want a union; it just means he or she didn’t vote."That’s the rationale of the board, two of whose members say current procedures are at odds with "the basic principles of democratic elections" and the idea of employee participation in workplace matters.But NMB Chairwoman Elizabeth Dougherty disagreed, questioning the board’s authority to modify a rule that goes back to the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She says the current rules reflect the goal of keeping stability in the airline and railroad industries and avoiding any interruption in commerce.Most large airlines, including Delta, also oppose the change. The Air Transport Association further says it is unfair to change the rule on forming unions without also making it easier for airline workers to decertify a union."We agree with NMB Chairwoman Dougherty that the proposal is a radical departure from long-standing and consistently applied rules," said James May, ATA president and CEO.The board will take public comments for 60 days before considering whether to make the rule final.Union leaders say the rule change would place the airline and railroad industries under the same procedures as most other companies.
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