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<blockquote data-quote="Ricochet1a" data-source="post: 863072" data-attributes="member: 22880"><p>The political scuttlebutt coming out of the FAA Reauthorization negotiations indicate that Sen. Reid (D) of Nevada is dropping his opposition to the House version of the Bill, which included ending/scaling back of the rural airport subsidies, along with the reversion back to the old definition of a majority vote in a union certification election. </p><p></p><p>What this means is that a potential (will never happen now within FedEx) vote to certify a union for a particular craft/trade would require a majority of all POTENTIAL voters, not just a majority of those who actually cast ballots. This was the definition prior to the decision of the NLB last year to change the definition of what constitutes a majority for a certification election. There is also virtually no chance of FedEx now being pulled from the RLA and placed under the NLRB when it comes to unionization requirements (local as opposed to national level elections). </p><p></p><p>Part of the reason for Express remaining under the RLA is due to the ratio of employees directly in contact with aircraft. FedEx barely meets one of the current criteria for RLA classification by maintaining a certaiin threshold of its employees which are in trades directly related to aircraft operations. </p><p></p><p>However, there is still a strong incentive to shrink the size of DGO (to further increase the percentage of Express employees in direct contact with aircraft) to protect against any change in that particular criterion. </p><p></p><p>Should Sen. Reid drop all opposition to the House version of the bill, it looks like Express will have dodged yet another bullet. The rationale for Reid's dropping opposition is the large number of furloughed contract workers in construction projects which are affected by there not being legislation to fund their activity, along with having just over 4,000 FAA employees (which a large percentage are union members) being out of work. It is yet another case of saving those who are unionized (many of the construction jobs at airports are done by union workers) and letting those who are not unionized (Express employees) fend for themselves.</p><p></p><p>Given the current deal making going on right now, it looks HIGHLY unlikely that the Congress will take any action that would assist Express employees before the next election cycle. The Democrats are too busy trying to protect their base and aren't looking to expend any political capital to assist Express employees. Fred S spent well in excess of $30 million in direct lobbying efforts trying to maintain the RLA classification, and when combined with the expense of providing the perks of on call air transportation for Members of Congress, has conservatively spend in excess of $100 million over the past 2 years to keep his special exemption for Express. </p><p></p><p> Since Congress is looking to recess for a late summer break in the near future, it will be shortly known if the FAA Reauthorization will go through the Senate with the House version, or if a game of brinksmanship will be played with that legislation too. Given the fact that a few thousand people are out of work due to there not being legislation (and many of those workers are union), it looks like Express employees are going to be tossed under the bus yet again by Congress to save their current union supporters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ricochet1a, post: 863072, member: 22880"] The political scuttlebutt coming out of the FAA Reauthorization negotiations indicate that Sen. Reid (D) of Nevada is dropping his opposition to the House version of the Bill, which included ending/scaling back of the rural airport subsidies, along with the reversion back to the old definition of a majority vote in a union certification election. What this means is that a potential (will never happen now within FedEx) vote to certify a union for a particular craft/trade would require a majority of all POTENTIAL voters, not just a majority of those who actually cast ballots. This was the definition prior to the decision of the NLB last year to change the definition of what constitutes a majority for a certification election. There is also virtually no chance of FedEx now being pulled from the RLA and placed under the NLRB when it comes to unionization requirements (local as opposed to national level elections). Part of the reason for Express remaining under the RLA is due to the ratio of employees directly in contact with aircraft. FedEx barely meets one of the current criteria for RLA classification by maintaining a certaiin threshold of its employees which are in trades directly related to aircraft operations. However, there is still a strong incentive to shrink the size of DGO (to further increase the percentage of Express employees in direct contact with aircraft) to protect against any change in that particular criterion. Should Sen. Reid drop all opposition to the House version of the bill, it looks like Express will have dodged yet another bullet. The rationale for Reid's dropping opposition is the large number of furloughed contract workers in construction projects which are affected by there not being legislation to fund their activity, along with having just over 4,000 FAA employees (which a large percentage are union members) being out of work. It is yet another case of saving those who are unionized (many of the construction jobs at airports are done by union workers) and letting those who are not unionized (Express employees) fend for themselves. Given the current deal making going on right now, it looks HIGHLY unlikely that the Congress will take any action that would assist Express employees before the next election cycle. The Democrats are too busy trying to protect their base and aren't looking to expend any political capital to assist Express employees. Fred S spent well in excess of $30 million in direct lobbying efforts trying to maintain the RLA classification, and when combined with the expense of providing the perks of on call air transportation for Members of Congress, has conservatively spend in excess of $100 million over the past 2 years to keep his special exemption for Express. Since Congress is looking to recess for a late summer break in the near future, it will be shortly known if the FAA Reauthorization will go through the Senate with the House version, or if a game of brinksmanship will be played with that legislation too. Given the fact that a few thousand people are out of work due to there not being legislation (and many of those workers are union), it looks like Express employees are going to be tossed under the bus yet again by Congress to save their current union supporters. [/QUOTE]
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