Union Bosses Deny 11,000 Employees a Vote on Labor Contract

Transport Workers Union boss John Conley says that he will deny airline employees the opportunity to vote on their own destiny.

Sandra Baker of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote:

“We are now at an impasse with AMR [American Airlines],” said John Conley, director of the union’s Air Transport Division. “We no longer have a tentative agreement, and no ballots will be presented to members for a ratification vote.”

The union asked the mediation board to declare an impasse in March, but the board told the parties to keep talking.

A few weeks ago, the union and American said they had reached a tentative agreement. But the proposal never went to a vote by the nearly 11,000 baggage handlers and other ground workers that clean aircraft, fuel planes and move freight.

Should the board declare an impasse and release the union from mediation, under the Railway Labor Act a 30-day cooling-off period would start, after which the union could call a strike or the company could enforce a lockout. [Emphasis added]

Unfortunately, employees are often left out of the union contract process because contracts virtually always grant union officials a monopoly voice and decision making powers over all workers whether they wanted it or not. This is just another example, among many, of how forced monopoly unionism is undemocratic and takes away the rights of individual workers.

And, it is forced union dues that fuel the Democrat party. It has made Democrat (and some Republican) elected officials from President Obama down to school boards beholden to Big Labor’s special interests. As a result, from town hall to state capitols to the nation’s capitol and the White House, elected officials are attempting to expand union bosses’ power to force people into unions at the expense of personal liberty.