Newswise — Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University senior lecturer at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, comments on the pending National Mediation Board rule change that could reduce the threshold for creating unions in the airline industry -- from a majority of all workers in any class to a majority of all votes cast in the union election.
Bronfenbrenner says:
“The current standard of eligible voters stands alone among labor boards and other voting procedures in this country … if you don’t vote, if you forget to vote, if you weren’t aware of the election, you’re assumed to have voted no. The union has to get 50 percent plus 1 of all the voters in the craft or class, including those who are on furlough often going back as far as three years.
“In elections where the voting standard is 50 percent plus one of votes cast, the goal of both sides is get the highest turnout possible. We found in elections where the standard is majority of all eligible voters, management strategy changes to suppress turnout. … When you turn to a majority of votes cast … the employer’s interest will be to have turnout.
“Workers vote. Even when there is employer opposition, workers vote in union elections. … The only time they don’t vote is when someone is coercing them to not vote. That’s what the data show.”
Bronfenbrenner is the only academic to have studied voting under the Railway Labor Act, which regulates workers in the airline industry. In December 2009, she testified before the National Mediation Board on the proposed rule change.
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A video clip of Bronfenbrenner speaking on the pending NMB rule is available at:http://www.cornell.edu/video/ccast.cfm?videoID=648&startSecs=1021&endSecs=1045
A complete video of Bronfenbrenner’s March 2010 “Inside Cornell” session – which includes her comments on the NMB rule, the implications for labor of Ciizens United v. FCC, and labor’s relationship with the Obama administration -- can be found at:http://www.cornell.edu/video
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