Rule Would Boost Unions At Airlines, Railroads

SAM HANANEL

WASHINGTON (AP) — Workers at U.S. airlines and railroads would have an easier time forming unions if the National Mediation Board succeeds in changing a 75-year-old rule on union organizing.

A proposed rule announced Monday would recognize a union if a majority of voting workers favor organizing. Current rules require a majority of an entire work group to vote for a union in order for it to be certified. That means a worker choosing not to vote at all is effectively casting a "no" vote.

The issue lies at the center of a dispute at Delta Air Lines Inc. Unions representing flight attendants and ground workers who worked for Northwest Airlines before it was bought by Delta want the new rules to cover elections at the combined carrier.

"The current rules embrace a veto by silent principle that is not only unfair, it is undemocratic," said Edward Wytkind, head of the AFL-CIO's transportation trades department. "Just because a worker does not vote doesn't mean he or she does not want a union, it just means he or she didn't vote."

That's the rationale of the board, where two of its three members say current procedures are at odds with "the basic principles of democratic elections" and the idea of employee participation in workplace matters.