Airlines Challenge to Union-Vote Rule Fails at Appeals Court
December 22, 2011, 12:16 AM ESTBy Michael Riley
(Updates with excerpt from ruling fourth paragraph.)
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- An airlines industry challenge to a government rule that makes union organizing easier was rejected by a U.S. appeals court, leaving in place a voting system that in 2010 upended 75 years of practice.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today, upholding a lower court decision, said the National Mediation Board acted legally in changing the rule for union elections to count the votes that workers’ cast rather than regarding abstentions as votes against unionization.
The board’s approval of the rule in June 2010, was a victory for transportation labor unions after President Barack Obama took office and gave the board a 2-1 Democratic majority. The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation, requested the change in September 2009.
“Nothing in the section clearly and unambiguously requires that a majority must participate in order to have a valid election,” the appeals court said.
The Air Transport Association of America Inc. challenged the rule, arguing the board had acted arbitrarily and ignored requirements of the 1926 Railway Labor Act. The Chamber of Commerce, along with five employees of Delta Airlines who claimed the ruled violated their First Amendment rights, joined as plaintiffs. The lower court ruled against them without a trial.
The mediation board referees relations between labor and management at railroad and airline companies.
The case is Air Transport Association of America, Inc. v. National Mediation Board, 10-00804, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington).
--Editors: Fred Strasser, Stephen Farr
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Riley in Washington at michaelriley@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
