Washington, DC (March 5, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Mediation Board (NMB) seeking records of any communication between two of its three members \u2013 both former union officials \u2013 and any union official or lobbyist concerning a dramatic rule change proposal on how a union is imposed on non-union railway and airline industry workers.<\/p>\n
\nThe NMB, the federal agency tasked with mediating labor disputes within the railroad and airline industries, is poised to roll back 75 years of precedent and change labor union organizing regulations, greasing the skids for union organizers to lock industry workers into union ranks. The new procedure would stack the deck in favor of unionization by granting a union monopoly bargaining power over workers if the union \u201cwins\u201d an election, no matter how few eligible workers actually participate in the vote. In fact, this means that a small bloc of workers could force union boss \u201crepresentation\u201d on the whole group as opposed to a true majority of all workers deciding for themselves. <\/p>\n
\nHarry Hoglander and Linda Puchala are former union officials with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) unions, respectively. Both unions are a major part of an American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) union-led coalition urging the NMB to discard its longstanding policy. President Barack Obama\u2019s appointment of Puchala in 2009 solidified a pro-forced unionism majority on the NMB. <\/p>\n
\nThe members voted 2-1 to preliminarily support the controversial change, and NMB Chair Elizabeth Dougherty has criticized the hasty actions of the two members. <\/p>\n
\nIn January, Foundation attorneys filed comments and testified with the NMB opposing the rule change and filed a motion seeking the recusal of Hoglander and Puchala as a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cPresident Obama repeatedly promised a new era of openness, transparency, and ethics but has repeatedly violated that pledge when it comes to paying off Organized Labor bosses,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cNational Mediation Board members should comply with the letter and spirit of that policy by not making rulings that so directly benefit their recent associates, ALPA and AFA union officials, in their quest to force more workers into union ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe FOIA request seeks correspondence, transcripts or notes of meetings, reports or handouts, proposals, speeches, phone logs, or other writings or recordings between Hoglander or Puchala and union officials concerning the proposed change.
\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC (March 5, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Mediation Board (NMB) seeking records of any communication between two of its three members \u2013 both former union officials \u2013 and any union official or lobbyist concerning a dramatic rule change proposal on how a union is imposed on non-union railway and airline industry workers.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n