Marathon Pundit: NMB overreach: Delta wins again

Thursday, December 08, 2011

NMB overreach: Delta wins again

Occupy Chicago

The equally radicalized but lesser-known National Mediation Board is working with the same playbook as the National Labor Relations Board--siding with unions over business.

Even though the playing field isn't level, unions, in this case the International Association of Machinists, keep losing when it takes on Delta Airlines. Not even the NMB is buying the IAM's arguments.

From the Wall Street Journal--free registration required:

Federal officials on Wednesday rejected a union group's claim that Delta Air Lines Inc. intimidated employees into voting against union representation last year, the airline's third victory in a month against similar charges.

The National Mediation Board's ruling affirms an employee vote in 2010 that kept the 13,000 Delta baggage and freight handlers nonunion. The decision also keeps Delta as the only major U.S. airline that is largely nonunion. Its pilots and dispatchers are unionized.

The Atlanta-based airline merged with Northwest Airlines in 2008, bringing thousands of new employees into the fold. In late 2010, the airlines' employee groups voted whether to accept union representation. Some union groups rejected by employees in the vote charged that the airline interfered in four work groups' elections, drawing federal investigations.

The National Mediation Board in recent weeks ruled that the elections for about 20,000 flight attendants and 700 stock clerks were fair, keeping them nonunion. The board has yet to rule on claims that Delta intimidated 15,000 customer-service employees to reject union representation...