Changes afoot in labor law will require unions to regroup, ILR School labor expert tells NYC media

Kate Bronfenbrenner
Provided
Kate Bronfenbrenner, ILR School senior lecturer on labor relations, speaks with journalists March 9 in New York City about the pending federal rule change related to the Railway Labor Act.

Kate Bronfenbrenner, ILR School senior lecturer on labor relations, spoke with journalists March 9 in New York City about the pending federal rule change related to the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and how the recent U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which abolished campaign-spending limits, changes the playing field for labor.

Reporters from The New York Times, CBS News and Bloomberg-BusinessWeek and other media outlets attended the monthly Inside Cornell event at the ILR Conference Center.

"This week the National Mediation Board is due to issue the amended voting standard for union certification elections for airline and railway employees -- to change it to 50 percent-plus-one of votes cast rather than the current standard of 50 percent-plus-one of eligible voters," said Bronfenbrenner. In other words, before, the union had to win the majority of all the workers in the craft or class (i.e., all flight attendants or all railway conductors), regardless of how many voted. For example, if 30 percent of workers didn't vote because they were sick, out of the country, didn't know the election was that day or had been laid off as much as three years ago, it was exceedingly difficult for the workers who did vote to achieve a majority. "This is opposed to the majority of votes cast standard, where the union just has to win the majority of the eligible voters who show up to vote."

"What happens if it changes? We know that there are 20,650 Delta flight attendants who are ready to vote," Bronfenbrenner said. "There's FedEx, Republic airlines, Jet Blue and numerous other airlines who are eager and ready to have elections."

Bronfenbrenner's testimony in December 2009 at a National Mediation Board hearing provided the only research-based analysis of organizing under the Railway Labor Act, which also cover airline workers. Her work established a scholarly foundation for that board's expected rule change to lower the voting threshold required for railway and airline workers to organize.

Four years ago, Bronfenbrenner said, she was approached by members of Congress and representatives from the labor movement and NGOs who were dealing with labor law reform and asked to update the research she has done over the past 20 years to help them shape the debate on labor law reform.

Bronfenbrenner said in 67 percent of elections, employers used one or more tactics to get voters to destroy their ballots either by ripping them up or giving them confusing instructions. "In elections where the voting standard is 50 percent-plus-one of votes cast, the goal of both sides is to get the highest turnout possible," said Bronfenbrenner, former union organizer. "In elections where the standard is the majority of eligible voters, management's strategy changes to suppress turnout."

Bronfenbrenner's most recent publication, "No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing," published by the Economic Policy Institute in 2009, has played a central role in the debate on the Employee Free Choice Act.

If changes to the RLA go through, Bronfenbrenner said, "We also know that employer opposition will increase dramatically when they change from using voter suppression to other tactics. There will be a lot more activity. More organizing drives. Whatever happens, the outcome will be more representative of what workers want. It will be a more democratic process."

Labor, she said, should organize grassroots, on-the-ground networks. Unions "need to use the strengths they do have because they can't outspend employers." She also recommended that unions avoid spending on candidates.

She added: "Labor is deeply disappointed in Obama and even more disappointed in Congress."

 

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John Carberry