AFA Asks and Congress Responds!
This past week members of our Government Affairs committee met with over 100 Congressional offices asking them to sign on to a letter urging President Obama to appoint a worker friendly National Mediation Board (NMB) as soon as possible. The letter was initiated by our good friend and labor champion, the Honorable Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) from the 34th district in CA. In the letter Rep. Roybal-Allard expressed concerns over the fact that the current “NMB has increasingly tilted in favor of employers over employees making organizing efforts and representation elections more difficultâ€. It goes further to let the President know that time is of essence as the NMB will soon oversee the full integration of Delta and Northwest Airlines. The election schedule, the voting environment, the tolerance of management anti-union campaigning and election rules are all governed by the NMB. The letter urges the administration to act quickly to appoint a fair-minded replacement to the current National Mediation Board to ensure that the rights of all airline and rail employees are protected. At the end of a two day marathon of meetings we gathered over 80 signatures on the House and the letter has been sent to President Obama. In addition to the over 80 signatures on the Roybal-Allard letter, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) and Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) sent their own individual letters to President Obama. We are hopeful that the administration will act and appoint an NMB that we can count on for fairness in time for our election. We would like to express our gratitude to Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) for taking the initiative on this sign-on letter.