Sat, Jan 28, 2012
Calls The Compromise 'Crippling' To Labor Organizations
As was to be expected, not everyone is happy with the compromise
worked out between House and Senate leaders to move a long-term FAA
funding bill forward in congress. Sito Pantoja, General Vice
President of Transportation for the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has issued a statement
criticizing a Congressional proposal that provides long-term FAA
funding at what he says is the expense of airline and rail
workers’ rights to join unions, strongly opposing the labor
proposal that he calls "flawed" and says "jeopardizes the
independence of the National Mediation Board (NMB)."
"The proposal imposes Congressionally-mandated standards for
union representation elections and oversight that have always been
up to independent federal labor authorities to decide," Pantoja
said in the statement. "Holding a much-needed FAA bill hostage, as
Republicans have done for months, is inexcusable. The IAM urges
Congress to pass a clean FAA reauthorization bill that does not
include politically motivated provisions that only serve to hurt
American workers.”
Included in the FAA Reauthorization bill are changes to the
Railway Labor Act, the federal labor law covering airline and
railroad workers, which would require the support of at least 50
percent of an employee group before a union representation election
could be held. Currently, there is no statutory requirement, but
National Mediation Board policy sets a 35 percent threshold. Other
private sector workers who fall under the National Labor Relations
Act need only 30 percent to trigger an election.
Pantoja says that while the proposal requires the NMB to hold
public hearings before changing its rules, this very proposal
imposes new standards on the NMB without the benefit of any such
public hearing.
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