Another plum for labor in the offing

The latest looming political favor features the National Mediation Board, the federal agency established in 1934 under the Railway Labor Act to oversee labor relations in the air and rail industries. A department of the AFL-CIO last month sent a letter demanding that the board tear up longstanding rules requiring that a majority of all airline or rail workers vote in favor of union representation to win union certification.

The AFL-CIO instead wants a "minority rule," requiring only a majority of the employees who actually vote. Under current rules, if an airline has 10,000 nonunion flight attendants, 5,001 must vote yes to unionize. Under the union proposal if only 2,000 of 10,000 vote, and 1,001 vote yes, all 10,000 become subject to unionization.

The timing here is nakedly opportunistic. Two of Delta's unions-the Association of Flight Attendants and the International Association of Machinists-have elections pending in front of the Mediation Board as a result of last year's Delta acquisition of Northwest Airlines. Northwest was largely unionized but Delta wasn't. The Delta flight attendants tried to unionize last year but lost that election, and now the AFL-CIO wants the White House to stack the deck in their favor. Beyond Delta, the new rules would make it easier to unionize JetBlue, Continental, FedEx and short-line railroads, among others.

Not coincidentally, the president has changed the makeup of the Mediation Board to include a former president of the flight attendants union and pilot's union. Since a 2-1 vote is all that is required for a change in the regulation, it looks like Delta employees are going to get their union whether they like it or not.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky