Teamsters Support National Mediation Board Reform to Voting Process

November 2, 2009

Hoffa: NMB Would Bring Union Elections Up to Modern Standards

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today applauded the National Mediation Board's proposal to reform the voting process for union elections at airlines and railroads.

The NMB is proposing that a union be certified if a majority of the employees who vote support it.

The rule now requires a majority of all airline or rail workers to vote in favor of union representation to be certified as a union.

"This reform lets workers choose a union the same way they choose the president of the United States," Hoffa said. "Whichever side gets the most votes, wins.

"This reform brings union elections up to modern standards of democratic election law. It gives workers the right to sit out an election if they choose, just as they can sit out the presidential election. They currently don't have that right because sitting out an election is the same as a 'no' vote.

"Anyone who's been involved in an organizing campaign at a railroad or an airline knows that the deck is stacked against workers who want to form a union," Hoffa said. "The current voting process is an obstacle that was deliberately created to discourage workers from exercising their right to form a union."

The NMB is a federal agency created in 1934 under the Railway Labor Act to oversee National Mediation Board, the federal agency established in 1934 under the Railway Labor Act to oversee labor relations in the railroad and airline industries.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters