All House Members Would Have Lost Under Election Rules They Seek for Workers

by Mike Hall, Mar 28, 2011

The House member leading the fight to deny aviation and rail workers fair union elections would have lost his seat by a 68-32 percent margin under the election rules he wants to impose on transportation workers.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wants to repeal last year’s new rule by the National Mediation Board (NMB) that says air and rail elections should be decided just like any other election—including congressional elections—by a majority of votes cast. Previously under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which covers rail and airline workers, each worker who did not cast a vote in a representation election was automatically counted as a “No” vote.

A new report from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) finds that not only would Mica be an overwhelmingly loser under those rules, but not one member of Congress would have won election if they had to play by the same rules Mica, Delta Airlines and other transportation corporations want to impose on workers.

The House version of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill that Mica and most House Republicans are pushing would repeal the new NMB rule. Using the old standard, CWA reports that Mica would have received just 32 percent of the votes in his 2010 reelection.

Mica received support from 69 percent of the voters in his district who cast a ballot amounting to slightly over 185,000 actual votes tallied for him. However, if you add the over 83,000 voters who voted against Rep. Mica to 312,000 eligible voters who did not participate, then Rep. Mica would only muster 32 percent of the overall total.

Maine Gov. Removes Labor Mural in Stealth Move

by Tula Connell, Mar 28, 2011

Over the weekend, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) secretly removed from a state building an 11-panel mural depicting working families’ history. Like Republican state legislators in Wisconsin who passed a bill killing collective bargaining through a series of dirty tricks, Maine’s Republican governor operates away from the public eye—despite being an elected official accountable to taxpayers.

LePage resembles Wisconsin Republicans in another way—giving jobs to personal connections, in this case, his daughter. LePage made sure his 22-year-old daughter got an entry-level job in the governor’s office paying $41,000—$10,000 more than those who pass teacher and police tests. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s top aides found a comfy job—with a $12,000 raise—for the girlfriend of one of his staunchest allies.

Like Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other newly elected Republican lawmakers, LePage turns his nose up at democracy. During a rally Friday in Maine to protest the removal of the mural, an artist at the rally suggested:

that people form a human chain to block the mural’s removal. When asked what he would do if that happened, Governor LePage said, “I’d laugh at them, the idiots. That’s what I would do. Come on! Get over yourselves!”

Last week, LePage sparked outrage in the state and across the nation when he ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depciting the state’s labor history from the Department of Labor. The mural, in part, depicts a 1986 paper mill strike and “Rosie the Riveter” at Bath Iron Works.