The House this week may be voting to eliminate a “special favor” that the Obama administration granted to labor unions that represent airline and railroad workers.
Conservatives label the administration’s previous decision to change the parameters for unionization elections an “an unprecedented rule change,” and they’re urging the GOP-controlled House to strike down the provision.
At issue is, how many votes are needed for workers to join a union? What is the definition of a majority?
The new rule put in place by the National Mediation Board says these certification elections require majority support from the workers who show up for the election. The old rule said that a majority means 50 percent, plus one, of all workers – the proposed bargaining unit – must approve a unionization plan.
In other words, under the previous system everyone who doesn’t show up for the election is essentially counted as a “no” vote.
Over at The American Prospect, their analysts say this was a unilateral rules change by the administration that flies in the face of 75 years of regulations put in place under the Railway Labor Act. That act applies only to airlines and railways.
The National Mediation Board, the agency that resolves labor disputes under the RLA, amended the rules to allow a union to become certified with “only” a majority of actual votes cast, according to The American Prospect.
Union elections throughout the private sector are routinely determined by the number of votes cast, not the total membership, just as political elections are decided by a majority of those who show up at the polls, not a majority of overall registered voters.
But The American Prospect views this as a troubling system within the airline and railroad industries in which workers could be forced to pay union dues as a result of an election in which not everyone shows up at the ballot box.
The argument is that this is no less than minority rule, even in an election in which the pro-union forces “win” by a hefty 63 percent to 37 percent margin at the workplace polls (see below).
Here’s how The American Prospect sums up their case:
“On November 5, 2010, in an election (held) under the new rules, passenger service agents at Piedmont Airlines voted on whether to join the Communication Workers of America (CWA). CWA did not win the 50 percent-plus-one of votes of all members of the bargaining unit, required under the old rules, yet was certified as the employees’ bargaining agent.
“Out of 2,867 eligible voters, CWA won 1,107 votes, with only 638 ‘no’ votes. Thus, 1,760 employees who did not vote for CWA representation will henceforth be required to pay dues to the union.”
