Anyone who's been involved in an organizing campaign at a railroad or an airline knows that the deck is stacked against workers who want to form a union. The current voting process is an unfair obstacle that discourages workers from exercising their right to form a union.
Meet me on the other side for an explanation of what this is about.
After 75 years of facing uphill battles, workers in the airline and rail industries who want to join unions may soon have an easier time doing so, thanks to a proposal by the National Mediation Board (NMB) that would bring fairness to union elections.
The proposal, which was announced on November 3, would base the outcome of union elections in the airline and rail industries on the majority approval of people who vote. This is the same method used under the National Labor Relations Act and in political elections nationwide.
The current union-election system, which has been in place since 1934, bases the outcome of airline and rail union elections on the majority approval of an entire workgroup and counts those who do not participate in the election as voting against union representation. This means that workers who do not vote because they never received balloting instructions, have religious objections, forget to vote, are apathetic or make a deliberate choice not to vote, have their votes counted as a vote against unionization. This creates an unfair unequal playing field for workers who want to form a union under the Railway Labor Act. Many commentators have also noted that the unfair voting rules violate airline workers' freedom of association.
Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa hails the proposal by the NMB, calling it a step in the right direction.
The Teamsters have led the charge in encouraging the NMB to make rail and airline elections more fair. In fact, the NMB's proposed rule changes come just months after three Continental Fleet Service Workers flew to Washington, D.C. to lobby for a fairer union election process.
Anyone who's been involved in an organizsing campaign at a railroad or an airline knows that the deck is stacked against workers who want to form a union," Hoffa said. "The curent voting process is an unfair obstacle that discourages workers from exercising their right to form a union."
Reggie Robinson from Houston, Carlos Cuesta from Newark and Scot Moscovits from Cleveland joined Hoffa before meeting with two members of the NMB. Their message to the NMB was clear: reform union election prcedures now.
"The current rules are a great injustice to the common working man," Robinson said. "The NMB essentially decides your vote for you. These rules leave no room for neutrality and they don't take into consideration the fact that some people don't vote because of religious purposes, military service or illness."
Because of a 60-day mandatory comment period, it is yet unclear thow the proposed rule changes will affect the campaign at Continental. However, in our application for election filed with the NMB, we requested that the Continental fleet service election be held on the new rules.
As of today, more than 1,600 fleet service workers have signed a petition calling the NMB to change election rules and we believe now is more important than ever to show solidarity and to inform others this is happening.
"Just because the NMB has opened the door to change the rules doesn't mean our work is done," Robinson said. "As workers we have to stand together and continue to fight to get these rules changed. We aren't doing this just for us; we are doing this for any American laborer who wants a share at a fair shake."
Today there was an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the proposed rule changes, to get another perspective, you might want to check it out.