(The TTD issued the following on March 7.)
BAL HARBOUR, Fla. — Workers “have grown accustomed to an Administration that has run rough shod over our laws and has purposefully skewed the bargaining process in management’s favor,” transportation labor leaders said today, condemning President George W. Bush’s record on collective bargaining issues for undermining both the legal rights and economic security of workers.
At the winter board meeting of AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), leaders of 35 AFL-CIO unions spoke up in support of the collective bargaining rights of Federal Aviation Administration employees, postal workers, and rail workers.
Saying that FAA workers’ rights were “under siege,” the TTD said that FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, “appears intent on using a misguided interpretation of law to allow the agency to unilaterally impose the terms and conditions of a contract.” In what was described as “a draconian approach,” Administrator Blakey stopped bargaining with workers represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and in turn notified Congress that she will unilaterally impose a contract on these workers. NATCA and the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS) are contesting this move in court, saying that bargaining impasses should be sent to federal arbitration. The resolution said the FAA strategy of “stonewall and delay” is a “scorched earth” tactic that severely impedes the agency’s relationships with workers represented by NATCA, PASS, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
TTD also decried “unjust delays in rail bargaining” in which thousands of rail workers are now in their fifth year of negotiations, saying that the National Mediation Board (NMB) has refused to move the bargaining process along in a timely manner. The NMB, which governs labor-management relations in the rail industry, has refused to release the International Association of Machinists and the Sheet Metal Workers International Union from mediation despite the fact both unions have reached an impasse with management. “It is intolerable for our government to force a rail worker to wait five years for a new collective bargaining agreement,” TTD said.
Transportation labor leaders also announced their opposition to recommendations of a presidential commission studying postal reform that would “deal a severe setback to labor-management relations at the Postal Service and threaten the bargaining rights of 720,000 workers.” TTD said that the panel’s call for a politically-appointed “shadow board” to oversee Postal Service collective bargaining, “would have a severe chilling effect on collective bargaining and would impose the will of a highly politicized body of outsiders who have no place meddling in the bargaining affairs of labor and management at the Postal Service.” The TTD also opposed the commission’s recommendations for eliminating long-standing tripartite arbitration process, which has clearly served the parties well. Additionally, the TTD united against the panel’s opening the door to depriving postal employees of their existing federal health and pension benefits.
For a copy of the resolutions, visit www.ttd.org
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org