WASHINGTON, DC – Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued the following statement regarding an attempt to repeal National Mediation Board union election rules in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill:
“Fairness and democratic union elections are on the line with a measure in the pending House FAA bill – to be considered in committee tomorrow – that would repeal recently reformed election procedures for aviation and rail workers.
“Under current rules, modified in 2010 by the National Mediation Board, employees who actually cast a vote in a union election decide whether or not they want union representation. No longer are workers who choose to sit out a union election automatically assigned a ‘no’ vote.
“It is odd that some in Congress want to roll back election rules that embrace the same democratic principle that governs their own elections: a majority of those who vote decide the outcome. They may not realize that if the old, super-majority participation standard applied to their own elections, many of them would not be Members of Congress.
“We urge members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to stand on the side of fairness and reject this poorly veiled attempt to deprive aviation and rail employees the unfettered right to participate in a fair union election, free from management interference and under democratic procedures found throughout American society.
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The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, represents 32 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org.
