If a funding agreement isn’t reached by Sept. 16, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces another shutdown like the one Republicans forced in July. That shutdown cost 4,000 FAA workers and 70,000 construction workers two weeks’ pay, halted important airport safety improvements and cost taxpayers some $400 million. It ended Aug. 5 with a temporary FAA reauthorization.
But another shutdown just might happen if Republicans like Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) continue to carry Delta Air Lines’ baggage by backing a provision in the long-term House FAA funding bill—supported by Delta—to take away democratic union election rights for aviation and rail workers. Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) President Veda Shook says Mica is:
acting as Delta Air Lines’ pawn by advancing a union-busting provision and threatening another shutdown of the FAA. Mica’s contempt for workers and the 75,000 people who were out of work due to the partial shutdown of the FAA is feeding Delta’s grossly funded union-busting scheme.
AFA-CWA unions are stepping up the pressure on Mica, his Republican colleagues and Delta—and you can join in. Click here to sign a petition to Delta telling the airline it’s time to cease its support for the “entirely undemocratic” union election provision that would count workers who don’t participate in a union election as “No” votes.
AFA-CWA members are holding rallies and are picketing at airports and congressional district offices, including outside Mica’s home district office. Last week, they rallied at airports in Seattle; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Philadelphia; Charlotte; and Atlanta and plan more actions before Congress returns to work next month.
Mica claims he did not orchestrate the July shutdown over the union election rules and says he is “surprised” at the heat he is receiving. But Dana Milbank of The Washington Post writes:
Letting his anti-labor ideology take over, he tried to use the FAA bill to overturn a decision by the National Mediation Board to rescind an old rule that had made it unusually difficult for airline workers to organize. Delta Air Lines furiously lobbied Congress to intervene…Mica, as much as anybody, created a culture of distrust, where staking out bargaining positions leads not to compromise but to warfare. And now he’s surprised?
The Senate version of the FAA reauthorization bill protects workers’ rights. Lawmakers like Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) refused to give in to Mica’s hostage taking of the bill in July and vow to continue to support workers.
