Yesterday the U.S. Senate approved a conference committee report to provide about $63 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration through 2015. The House approved the same bill last Friday. Iowa’s delegation was divided, primarily because of provisions affecting airline workers’ ability to form a labor union.

Congress has funded the FAA through 17 short-term bills during the past eight years. The latest authorization was due to expire on February 17. Differences between the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate caused the FAA to shut down some of its services for two weeks last summer. One of the sticking points involved the Essential Air Service program, which supports commercial airline service to some small airports. The bill now on President Barack Obama’s desk continues this program, but it places new limits on federal subsidies.

Labor union organizing rights proved a larger obstacle to a long-term FAA authorization bill. Last summer’s standoff ended only because Republicans kicked the can down the road on that issue. But during conference committee negotiations, House Republicans insisted on language that would make it harder for airline workers to unionize. At the end of this post I enclose a statement from 19 labor unions that urged Congress to pass a “clean” FAA bill, without any new language on union elections.

Representative Leonard Boswell was one of the House Democrats named to a conference committee charged with finding a compromise on the FAA bill. From his statement of January 31:

Congressman Leonard Boswell (IA-3) today was named as one of five House Democrats meeting in public conference to work on the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill.

“Congressman Boswell brings a breadth of experience and expertise to the table, and I look forward to having him play a pivotal role getting the FAA bill across the finish line to keep Iowa’s and our Nation’s economy moving forward,” said Ranking Member Nick Rahall (WV-3), top Democrat on the House Transpiration and Infrastructure Committee.

Boswell, a longtime general aviation pilot and former Vietnam War helicopter pilot, is a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and currently serves on the Aviation Subcommittee.

“I am looking forward to working in a bipartisan fashion with my fellow conferees to reach a compromise on the multi-year FAA reauthorization legislation,” Boswell said. “With the proposed reduction in funding, we must ensure – first and foremost – the safety of the American people and also protect aviation workers’ rights to organize in their workplace.”

In his report on the February 3 House vote, Pete Kasperowicz summarized the give and take on labor language:

The bill was supported by 24 Democrats whose desire to put the FAA on a more stable funding path outweighed their objections to the bill. Several Democrats took to the floor today to encourage members to vote for what they said was a less-than-perfect bill.

Most importantly, Democrats continue to oppose the labor compromise that House and Senate conferees struck in the bill. Under the legislation, no less than 50 percent of airline workers must favor a vote on unionization before that vote can take place, up from 35 percent.

Some Democrats said today that this language has no place in the FAA bill, but said it is at least better than language in the House-passed FAA bill. House language would have repealed a National Mediation Board (NMB) rule under which absentee votes in union elections were not counted as votes against forming a union.

The roll call for last Friday’s House vote shows that Boswell and Republicans Tom Latham (IA-04) and Steve King (IA-05) were among the 248 representatives who voted to approve the conference report on the FAA Modernization and Reform Act. Representatives Bruce Braley (IA-01) and Dave Loebsack (IA-02) were among the 157 Democrats and 12 Republicans who voted no.

I didn’t see any press releases about this vote from any of Iowa’s U.S. House members. I sought comment from Braley and Loebsack about why they opposed the conference language. Braley’s communications director Jeff Giertz responded,

Rep. Braley opposed the FAA Reauthorization bill because (1) it’s bad for small, rural airports such as the Waterloo Regional and Dubuque Regional airports located in the First District, and (2) it contains several anti-worker provisions that were included in the bill that affect a worker’s ability to freely join a union.

Loebsack’s communications director Joe Hand sent me this statement from the representative.

“I am a strong supporter of improving our nations crumbling transportation infrastructure and have supported numerous proposals to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration in the past that did not contain harmful provisions. That said, I am happy this legislation will ensure the continuance of the Essential Air Service program which support rural airports and will help to modernize our nation’s air traffic control system. Unfortunately I could not support the legislation in the end because the bill makes drastic changes to long-standing employee protections that have not been fully considered by the House or Senate and would place a financial strain on small and medium sized rural airports in my district and across Iowa.”

The U.S. Senate took up the FAA bill on February 6. The conference report passed easily by 75 votes to 20 (roll call). Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley was part of the majority; Tom Harkin was among the opponents (five Republicans, fourteen Democrats and an independent who caucuses with Democrats). I haven’t seen any public comment on this bill from Grassley, but Harkin’s office released his statement to the Senate floor on February 6 (as prepared):

“Mister President, I rise today to express my concern about provisions of this bill that amend an unrelated labor law statute – the Railway Labor Act.  As the Chairman of the Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions, which has jurisdiction over this law and the agency that enforces it, the National Mediation Board, I am troubled by the inclusion of this language and the implication that it creates – namely, that this independent federal agency and the hardworking Americans it protects are being punished for recent regulatory changes that protect workers’ rights.  

“The National Mediation Board or NMB, established in 1934, is an independent agency that administers labor relations in the air and rail industries.  In 2009 this small, 51-person agency went through a careful process to change the voting rules governing the elections that it administers.  Under the old, antiquated election system, all non-voters were automatically and arbitrarily treated as a “no” vote, or a vote against the union, regardless whether or not they actually opposed forming a union.  These rules were contrary to the election rules used in National Labor Relations Board supervised elections, and different from the rules governing elections held for elected offices throughout the United States, from school boards to Senators.

“This system made no sense.   Just as it would be unfair to arbitrarily assign Americans a position in the Presidential race just because they chose not to vote, it was unjust to capriciously impose a position on rail and aviation workers who, for one reason or another, do not vote in a representation election.

“That is why the National Mediation Board adopted the commonsense rule that in future elections a voter’s decision not to vote has no impact on an election’s outcome.  Only those voters who actually participate will determine the outcome of the election — a majority of those who vote determine who wins.  This basic system of conducting elections works for school boards.  It works for Congress.  It works for businesses governed by the National Labor Relations Act.  And, it will work and has worked for rail and aviation workers.

“The only entity that this new system apparently doesn’t work for is the management of a few very powerful airlines.  These powerful companies were deeply concerned about the remote chance that at some point in the future, they might have to put a few additional dollars in into middle class workers’ pockets.  So they waged an unprecedented attack campaign to kill this rule.

“First they found some friends in Congress and tried challenging the rule under the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows Congress to overturn a rule through a Resolution of Disapproval.  They lost that fight on the Senate floor.  Next they went to Court to challenge the legality of the rulemaking.  They lost that fight in the District Court and the Court of Appeals.  So then then they waged a last-ditch effort to kill the rule on the FAA bill.

“The FAA Reauthorization has historically been a bipartisan bill that is essential to the operation of our aviation system.  The current bill not only extends a wide variety of provisions impacting aviation, it helps to create tens of thousands of jobs and bring our aviation system into the 21st century.  This important legislation has absolutely nothing to do with the National Mediation Board, whose sole job is to oversee labor relations.  But last year House Republicans tried to turn the FAA reauthorization bill into a vehicle to attack workers’ rights.

“They added a provision to their bill repealing the NMB’s election rule.  Then, when the House and Senate bills were in conference, they refused to pass a “clean” extension of FAA laws- as had been done on more than 20 prior occasions – stopping conference negotiations and instead forcing a partial shutdown of the FAA.  That shutdown last summer left 4,000 FAA workers furloughed, put many thousands of people out of work in airport construction, and cut off FAA reimbursement payments to small business across this country.  It cost the federal government about 25 million in tax revenue a day.  While frustrating, it has long been the norm to keep agencies operating with short term extensions while bills whose terms have not been worked out are negotiated.  The House action was a rare break from that norm.  And it caused real damage to thousands of real people.  

“Fortunately, there was substantial public backlash and House Republicans had to back down and let a short-term FAA extension pass.  And they backed off their demand to kill the rule.  But the powerful corporations behind this effort still couldn’t let the issue go.  Despite the fact that the new rule had been in place for more than a year and has had absolutely no negative impact on any carrier – the union success rate in elections has remained roughly the same before and after the rule’s implementation – these corporations needed to take a pound of flesh from the National Mediation Board and from America’s rail and airline workers to punish them for having the audacity to stand up for what is fair.

“So their friends in the House Republican leadership demanded the addition of burdensome new changes to the Railway Labor Act in this unrelated bill.  The dramatic changes they initially demanded to this 86-year-old statute were absurd, and would have been irresponsible to slip into a non-amendable conference report without any consideration by the Committee of jurisdiction.

“Fortunately, Senator Reid and Chairman Rockefeller, through months of negotiations, were able to stave off the worst of the House Republican proposals and ultimately settle on a package of less detrimental changes.  Under this new language, the agency retains discretion to determine when a union should be properly certified as a bargaining representative, and we have no intention of changing that process.  I also think that we’ve left a lot of room here for the agency to make rules that govern special situations such as mergers.

“But to be clear, I don’t think any of us on this side of the aisle wanted to make these changes at all.  We were forced to cut a deal by a few powerful people who were willing to hold many thousands of American jobs and needed improvements to our airways system hostage.  Some people might call this process a compromise, but I call it an abuse of our legislative process.  And we shouldn’t let it happen.

“To be clear, there’s some progress in this bill, for the people of my state and the people of this great nation.  It will create jobs and move our country’s aviation system into the 21st Century.  It shifts our air traffic control system to a GPS system, planes can fly far more efficiently saving fuel and time.  It provides a compromise that continues the Essential Air Service Program.

“So my vote today is not to suggest that there aren’t many good things in this bill, but instead to stand up against the notion that a federal agency and the American workers it is charged to protect should be punished for doing what is right and what is fair, and to stand up against a process that allows the few and the powerful to hijack this body and change the rules of the game in their favor.  The American people deserve better.”

I will update this post if the offices of Grassley, Boswell, Latham or King release statements on the FAA bill.

On January 30, leaders of 19 labor unions released this statement:

Transportation Unions Call on Congress to Pass Clean FAA Reauthorization

‘Rewriting decades of labor law without debate or discussion sets a dangerous precedent’

Washington, D.C. – Following is a statement by 19 unions calling for passage of a clean FAA Reauthorization, without drastic and unnecessary changes to the Railway Labor Act:

The unions are UAW; Communications Workers of America; Association of Flight Attendants-CWA; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; American Federation of Government Employees; International Association of Machinists; National Education Association; Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen-IBT; Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees-IBT; Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen; Service Employees Local 32BJ-National Conference of Fireman and Oilers; Sheet Metal Workers; United Steelworkers; Teamsters; American Train Dispatchers Association; Transportation Communications Union-IAM; Amalgamated Transit Union; United Transportation Union; UniteHere.

We remain strongly committed to passage of a clean FAA Reauthorization bill. An aviation safety and security bill is no place to impose unrelated and controversial labor provisions that will ultimately serve to harm both airline and railroad workers. The proposed Railway Labor Act changes would drastically rewrite a statute that was crafted by labor-management cooperation and has not been changed for over 75 years without the agreement of both employer and employee representatives. Airline and rail workers would suffer significant losses as contracts are jettisoned, collective bargaining rights are cut and legal hurdles will be placed in the way of gaining a voice at work.

A rewrite of long standing labor law deserves proper and due consideration through the normal deliberative process. Acting otherwise directly conflicts with the non-partisan recommendations of the 1994 Report of the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations. This is particularly true of this law which was uniquely created through labor and management negotiations. Unilaterally changing that law without labor’s input and without due deliberation threatens to unravel its carefully balanced goals of labor stability and uninterrupted commerce.

Rewarding the House Republican Leadership’s desire to rewrite decades of long standing labor law in a flash by inserting an unrelated and controversial labor provision in a much needed aviation safety and security bill, without notice, hearing, or debate, sets an extremely dangerous precedent. We urge the Senate to delete the provisions of the bill that would amend the RLA and pass the clean FAA Reauthorization that all concerned recognize this country sorely needs and supports.