Airlines oppose union rule change

Mediation board proposes letting air, rail staff organize even if majority don't vote in election

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

The National Mediation Board proposed a rule change Monday that would allow airline and railroad workers to unionize, even if a majority of workers don't participate in the election.

The change would overturn more than 75 years of precedent. It would eliminate a requirement that a majority of workers must participate in a unionization election for it to be valid.

The proposal is opposed by airlines, which maintain that only Congress has the power to implement such a sweeping change. They're also concerned that unlike non-transportation unions that report to the National Labor Relations Board, airline and railroad workers would have no recourse to decertify a labor union under the new rule.

"It is completely disingenuous to propose this rule change without also proposing a parallel decertification process," James May, president of the Air Transport Association, said in a statement.

Locally, the proposal would directly affect thousands of Northwest Airlines workers who are being absorbed into Delta Air Lines through the companies' merger -- a deal that closed a year ago.

Tens of thousands of flight attendants and ground workers who are unionized under agreements with Northwest eventually will vote with their non-union Delta counterparts to decide their representation status.

The two unions representing those groups, the Association of Flight Attendants and the International Association of Machinists, believe it'll be easier to win those elections under the proposed rule change.

In its official statement, the board said the change in "election procedures will provide a more reliable measure/indicator of employee sentiment in representation disputes and provide employees with clear choices in representation matters."

But board chairwoman Elizabeth Dougherty didn't agree with the decision.

In a Monday letter to Republican senators, Dougherty lambasted the decision, saying the board should have opened a session of public comment before issuing such a proposal and characterized the decision as being made in "the complete absence of any principled process."

Companies affected by the change are questioning the authority of the board to change the rule, as well as the process behind the proposal.

"We do not believe the (board) has the authority to change these longstanding rules," said Gina P. Laughlin, a Delta spokeswoman.

"Nor do we believe a minority voting rule should be allowed without giving employees a similar process to vote out a union."

The board will make a final decision on the voting process following a 60-day comment period.

nhurst@detnews.com (313) 222-2293