The perils of the so-called
Employee Free Choice Act are well known: it’s a
job killer that tramples
workers’ rights and threatens
small businesses.
Equally well known are the motives behind the act: special interest union leaders are spending millions to change the way workers organize, a move that would dramatically increase their size and political clout.
But while EFCA watchers have kept their sights set on Congress, it seems a parallel scheme is afoot in an obscure federal agency that oversees labor relations for air and railway workers. The Wall Street Journal has the details:
“The latest looming political favor features the National Mediation Board, the federal agency established in 1934 under the Railway Labor Act to oversee labor relations in the air and rail industries. A department of the AFL-CIO last month sent a letter demanding that the board tear up longstanding rules requiring that a majority of all airline or rail workers vote in favor of union representation to win union certification.
“The AFL-CIO instead wants a ‘minority rule,’ requiring only a majority of the employees who actually vote. Under current rules, if an airline has 10,000 nonunion flight attendants, 5,001 must vote yes to unionize. Under the union proposal if only 2,000 of 10,000 vote, and 1,001 vote yes, all 10,000 become subject to unionization. …
“The union says it merely wants an election governed by the same rules that apply to nontransport industries under the National Labor Relations Act. But the Railway Labor Act was written because the government viewed transportation as economically vital, and one of the law's purposes is to avoid damaging strikes. Every Mediation Board since 1934 has upheld the majority rule, on grounds that ‘certification based upon majority participation promotes harmonious labor relations. A union without majority support cannot be as effective in negotiations as a union selected by a process which assures that a majority of employees desire representation.’
“The Railway Labor Act also offers no direct way for workers to decertify a union once it is in place, which is why the law provides the initial safeguard of a majority vote. The Supreme Court has twice upheld the majority rule, and the Mediation Board has four times rejected requests to change it, as recently as last year. The majority rule has been used in more than 1,850 elections, and unions have won more than 65% of the time. At least one Board (under the Carter Presidency, note) bluntly said that only Congress could change the voting rules.”
Editorial, “Flying the Union Skies,” The Wall Street Journal, 10.07.09
The resemblance to EFCA is striking. In both cases, unions currently win a majority of elections – but claim the system is broken and needs to be tilted in their favor to fix it. Workers lose their right to be heard – potentially forced to organize without an opportunity to ever cast a vote. Looks like EFCA’s doppelganger is just as dangerous as the original.
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