Bring the NMB Rules Into The 21st Century

On Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Richard Anderson (along with the airline industry's lobbying arm, the Air Transport Association) issued a statement vehemently condemning any change in the National Mediation Board's Election Manual to provide that a union winning the majority of votes cast in a representation election be certified as the representative of the craft and class.

This is not a radical concept. Each of us should ask: Why then are Delta Air Lines executives and their lobbyist so upset and concerned about having the majority of the votes cast determine the winner? In fact, this is the way every union election is run outside of the railroad and airline industries. It is also the way every election in the United States is run at the municipal, state and federal levels. It is the American system of democracy, so why has Richard Anderson publicly opposed this issue?

Delta is desperately fighting the Rule change because in the past Delta Air Lines has poured millions of dollars into suppressing the vote of their employees to avoid unionization at all costs, and they were successful at it. In past elections, they directed their employees to tear up or mutilate their ballots and simply not vote. Their blatantly antidemocratic conduct was rewarded, and they beat back several organizing drives under the current outdated NMB rule. The rule is unique in America and maybe the world—because to be certified an airline union must not only win a majority of the votes cast, but more than 50% of the employees in the craft and class must have voted or there will be no union, no matter how many votes the union received. The Rule is outdated and unfair for all of us.

It is amazing that the executives at Delta Air Lines would demonize labor for asking that the rule be changed. Delta executives must have a short memory. About a year ago, the very same executives at Delta Air Lines petitioned the NMB to change the rule to make it even more difficult for a union to win certification. They urged that the Rule be changed so that in order for a union to win representation it must get a "super majority," or what it called more than a substantial majority. Suddenly, Richard Anderson has the gall to criticize the IAM, AFA and all of transportation labor for proposing a rule that would, in fact, make the process more democratic for each of us.

The NMB's policy was first applied nearly 75 years ago but is no longer valid in the modern age. In 1934, the NMB began to apply the rule in the railroad industry but acknowledged that there was no real legal basis for it. With today's multiple and nearly instantaneous means of electronic communications, along with the NMB's own electronic voting, its rationale has gone the way of the steam engine. It is the position of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Department, as well as dozens of other labor organizations, that the Board's policy must be updated to meet the realities of the 21st century and restore democracy to the process. Accordingly, we have joined with all other unions in the transportation industry to ask the NMB to change its policy as set forth in their Election Manual to provide that the union that obtains a majority of the votes cast in a representation election shall be certified, as occurs in every other industry, including the public sector. This is the American way. It is time to level the playing field for ALL working men and women in the aviation industry.

In solidarity,

Stephen M. Gordon

President/Directing General Chair