Posted on 10/07/2009 10:07:59 AM PDT by jazusamo
No trucks from Mexico, no new trade agreements, a sweet deal for the United Auto Workers at GM and Chrysler, tariffs on Chinese tires, and now Big Labor has another demand of the Obama Administration: Overturn 75 years of labor policy to sandbag Delta Airlines and unionize transportation workers. Will it get that too?
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
You’ve got to fly 125,000 MQMs to get free Crown Room, er, Sky Club membership (that’s what it takes to make the new “Diamond Level”). Or you could cash in 60,000 SkyMiles(TM).
Well, I’m out, I may have Silver level before this year is out (25K total) with my holiday trips.
A better idea is, if you want to be in a union, become employed by a shop that is already unionized.
Actually, you have it bass-ackards. In many union shops, even if you are NOT a union member, they still take your monthly union dues out of your paycheck and you have to beg for your “dues” to be returned!
My daughter works for Kroger’s, but did not want to join the union. Even though she is NOT a union member, the store says that the Union is the business unit that they are required to work with and therefore the agreed upon union policies are set for all employees that are not management. So, every paycheck they take out the standard union dues and she has to request, in writing, from the store (with union boss approval) to have her “dues” returned.
If you miss the deadline for requesting, which has recently been changed to “...the payday following the posting date for your last payment.” Basically, if she misses a week where she doesn’t request a return of her dues, they automatically get to keep that week’s “dues!”
Unions are micro-Communistic organizations! Everyone works for the good of the union (whether it is good for your or not)!! Unions had purposes many years ago, now they are nothing more than political machines! And most are tightening a noose around their own collective necks by killing the Goose that Lays to golden eggs, because they want more eggs than the D@MN goose can produce!
I live in the South and fly Delta all the time. In general, I like Delta and the service is usually pleasant and the atmosphere is good (the staff is not hostile or dragged out and tired, as it is on some other airlines).
I have Silver Medallion status, but unfortunately they have reduced a lot of their perks and the Sky Rooms are no longer as nice as they used to be. But still, I like it better than most other airlines I fly, and I hope this union stuff doesn’t destroy it.
Do you know who owns the Association of Flight Attendants? The CWA. Communications Workers of America. You know, telecom workers, phone cable installers, etc. What does the CWA know about the airline business? NOTHING. It's about numbers, that's it. Numbers and Democrat votes.
I hope so too. If the Board does change the rule it’ll probably be a fight if the union somehow does get a vote through with a win for them. Probably force a long court battle and even if Delta should win it it could be bad for them while it’s going on.
Yes, that's very true. Delta did a lot to pull itself out of the hole a few years ago, but obviously in the new Obama-union world, that doesn't matter. Maybe Bambi will nationalize all the airlines. We'll have Aeroflot Delta.
You’re right, it’s about numbers and unions are doing their darndest to increase those numbers for more dollars to buy off more RAT politicians. It amounts to criminal acts in plain sight because the crooks can deny a quid pro quo.
I’d better use my SkyMiles soon.
No big deal. Plenty of room available for Delta’s airplanes in the Davis-Monthan AFB boneyard.
I am a PM, the Delta Sky Club is not that great.
The owners of Krogers are operating illegally.
So the union rounds up a couple hundred stooges and doesn’t invite anyone else to the vote and since all 200 vote for the union, the other 10,000 have to go along. I wouldn’t actually object to this rule if it were stipulated that at least 90% of those affected must vote or it doesn’t apply.
I was under the same impression, but she lives in a right to work state and the company told her that the union is considered the bargaining group for all NON-management personnel and they are bound by law to follow all the rules that the union sets forth.
I told her to look into it further, but she said she and the payroll lady had a deal - she filled out several of the “Dues Return Request” sheets and each payday the payroll clerk just dates one and puts it into the payroll stack (payroll clerk isn’t union either)!
More than one way to de-fur a feline!
I manage a manufacturing facility in a right to work state, we are about 50% union, only the members of the Union pay dues. If she never filled out an authorization card to have Union Dues taken out of her check, the company she is working for is operating illegally, tell her to get a lawyer.
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