Isakson Leads Fight Against Obama Administration's Attempts to Ease Path to Unionization

'This administration simply refuses to obey the will of the majority and has chosen to overturn 75 years of precedent to grant favors to labor unions'

Sep 23, 2010

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator and Senate candidate Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today led the fight on the Senate floor to stop the National Mediation Board from overturning 75 years of precedent to make it easier for airline and railway employees to unionize. The motion to proceed to his “disapproval resolution” failed by a vote of 43-56. Three Democrats joined with all Republican senators in supporting the resolution.

“The recognition of a union under the Railway Labor Act is essentially permanent and irrevocable, and now a minority can organize the entire bargaining unit,” Isakson said. “This administration simply refuses to obey the will of the majority and has chosen to overturn 75 years of precedent to grant favors to labor unions. In fact, in large measure, it seems to me this rule is a ‘card check light.’”

The National Mediation Board issued a final rule change on May 11, 2010, that has affected companies under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act by allowing union elections to be decided by only a majority of workers who cast ballots, reducing the number of votes it takes for a union to organize permanently. Previously, a union could only be approved if a full majority of all employees voted to do so under the “majority rule” procedure, which had been in place since the creation of the National Mediation Board in 1934.

S.J. Res. 30, which Isakson introduced in May, would have undone this rule change under the procedures created by the Congressional Review Act of 1996. This law allows Congress to disapprove of regulatory rules issued by federal agencies by enacting a joint resolution of disapproval. To revoke the rule, the resolution must be passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President.

Isakson, who serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety that has jurisdiction over labor issues, believes the National Mediation Board does not have the authority to change this election procedure without Congressional authorization. The Supreme Court has upheld the “majority rule” twice, and the National Mediation Board previously rejected requests to change it four times under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

“There is no sound legal or policy basis for hastily changing a rule that has been in place and upheld repeatedly for over 75 years,” said Isakson. “The Obama administration’s two Democrat nominees to the National Mediation Board, in repealing a 75-year old rule without Congressional approval or adequate reasoning, have recklessly tossed aside fairness and impartiality to benefit their former bosses in the labor movement.”

The AFL-CIO requested the rule change in a Sept. 2, 2009, letter to the National Mediation Board. Isakson, along with seven of his Senate colleagues, filed official comments on the rule change with the National Mediation Board on Jan. 4, 2010, urging the board to reject the changes proposed by the AFL-CIO and claiming that the “integrity of the Board’s rulemaking process has been compromised.”