"Under the Rail Labor Act (RLA), rail and airline employees had their right to choose to be elect to be represented by a Union, which Union to be represented by, or to end Union representation. The Wikipedia entry on the RLA shows how a Union representation vote is handled:
"The NMB [National Mediation Board) usually uses mail ballots to conduct elections, unlike the National Labor Relations Board, which has historically preferred walk-in elections under the NLRA. Also in contrast to the NLRA, under the RLA a union must receive a majority of votes from the entire craft or class, rather than merely a majority of those who choose to vote."
The important part of that is the Union has to receive the votes of the majority of all employees. Any employee not participating in the vote is considered a "no" vote.
On May 11th, the NMB released an update to the Act. This update, to be effective June 10th, 2010, allows a Union victory if the majority of votes cast are for Union representation.
Here's the difference. If you have a workforce of 1,000 and 500 vote, there was no way the Union would be certified as they didn't receive the necessary majority (501) votes of all employees. Now, if only 500 of those 1,000 employees votes, 251 supporting votes will certify the Union. Taken to the extreme, if only 1 person votes, that singular person votes for the entire 999 other employees.
According to Mike Hall's AFL-CIO blog, the election rules "are more fair and more in line with democratic principles." While he is correct in that every other election, the simple majority of votes cast wins, this is not the same as every other election. The only elections that are simple majority elections are local elections (ie. property tax levies, school levies, local and state level government officials, etc.). The RLA extends past the local level and applies to every employee in that class across the nation. So, if there are two locations for a particular job class, one with 250 employees that is in a very anti-Union area and the other with 750 employees in a very pro-Union area, it is possible that the larger facility could certify the Union to represent all the employees without any supporting votes in the smaller facility. While the original rules would have allowed that same result, it would have been significantly more difficult, requiring more than 2/3 of all employees at the larger facility to vote and to vote in favor. If voter turnout is 50%, all the Union needs for certification is for 1/3 of the larger facility to vote in favor of certification.
Presidential elections aren't straight up majority vote wins, either. In the 2000 election, Al Gore won more votes from the populace, 48.4% to 47.9% for George Bush. Since the public does not elect Presidents directly, Bush ended up winning the Presidency because he won more votes in the Electoral College.
Additionally, it takes a majority of Electoral College votes for a candidate to win an election. If no candidate wins the majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives chooses the President from the slate of candidates. This happened in 1824. Four candidates split the popular vote and the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson had more popular votes and more electoral votes than any one of the other three candidates (John Quincy Adams, William Crawford and Henry Clay). The House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams to be the next President of the United States even though he had the second most popular votes (30.9% to 41.3%) and the second most electoral votes (84 to 99 (percentage of electoral vote were 32.2% to 37.9% respectively)).
President Obama and the Democratic Party leaders relied heavily on Union votes to be elected. By making it easier and passing legislation that is pro-Union, the favors are being paid back. Union membership has been waning. Unions are coming under increasing pressure to boost enrollment or be faced with fiscal problems. Helping the Unions in this goal is essentially giving Federal backing to a minority institution at the expense of the majority of workers. According to the Labor Unions Wikipedia entry, only 12.4% of all workers are represented by Unions.
Union practices were once a boon to the mass of employees. Now, they unfairly increase labor costs and reduce the ability of companies to compete, especially with foreign competitors. Rights of the employee have to be protected. The ability of a company to be competitive and not close is of equal importance."
No comments:
Post a Comment