(The following story by Wayne Risher appeared on the Memphis Commercial-Appeal website on June 27, 2010.)
DALLAS, Texas — A federal court sided with organized labor Friday, backing more liberal voting rules for union representation elections at airlines and railroads.
The U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia denied an industry appeal against new National Mediation Board rules on union elections.
The most immediate impact could be in union efforts to organize nonunion workers at Delta Air Lines.
The Air Transport Association, which includes Delta and FedEx, had appealed the rule change.
An ATA statement said, “We are disappointed with the court’s ruling and believe the National Mediation Board does not have the authority to impose this new rule. We will thoroughly study the decision to determine what, if any steps, ATA will take, including exercising our right to appeal the ruling.”
Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, issued this statement:
“With today’s court decision, tens of thousands of airline and rail workers are a step closer to pursuing the power of collective bargaining under fairer union election rules.”
He added, “The deck has been stacked against workers for too long with many union elections being invalidated by unfair rules that required super majority participation — a standard found nowhere else in our democracy.”
The NMB change, published in the Federal Register in May, would reverse 75 years of counting nonvoting workers as being against unionization.
Workers could gain union representation if a simple majority, 50 percent plus one, of those voting approve the measure.