Labor Relations in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries

4. Elections, Certifications, and Procedures

81 4. Elections, Certifications, and Procedures The election and certification process under the RLA and the NLRA require an understanding ofthebargainingunitfromanemployees’point of view. The two acts are broad in nature and are federally mandated, but their coverage does not necessarily extend to all employers or employees . This chapter specifies the jurisdiction of the various statutes of both acts. Whether workers, unions, and employers are covered by the provisions of the acts depends on the statutorydefinitionsofthetermsinterstatecommerce , carrier, and employee. Interstate Commerce The Supreme Court has defined commerce in a series of cases in which the federal government hastheabilitytoapplylegislationaffectingindustries that are engaged in interstate commerce. The interpretation of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution,waschallengedinthecaseof Gibbons v. Ogden. The interpretation of “Congress shall have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes” was clarified by Chief Justice John Marshall’s court opinion: “It is the powertoregulate;thatis,toprescribetheruleby which commerce is to be governed. This power, like all others vested in Congress, is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent and acknowledge no limitation, other than in the Constitution.”1 The cases that followed established the authority and constitutionality of Congress to enact the RLA and the NLRA (see fig. 4.1).2 Inenactingthesetwosetsoflaborlegislation, Congress applied the rulings of commerce and extendedthedefinitiontomeaninterstatecommerce . The reach of the acts was based on the Supreme Court rulings of what affected commerce . This extended definition of commerce, when applied to the two labor acts, implied and established that business must be conducted across state lines in order for the acts to apply. Products do not have to be physically shipped across state lines. It is sufficient that raw materials ,power,orcommunicationsareusedbetween states. The operating agencies of the two acts, the National Mediation Board (NMB) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), were therefore given authority to exercise their jurisdiction over all but the smallest of businesses or airlines, particularly those airlines operating as intrastate carriers only. So pervasive is the coverage under the interstate commerce definition that the NLRB has found it necessary to limit its jurisdiction. Table 4.1 lists the jurisdictional limitations of the NLRB. The Process under the Railway Labor Act Jurisdiction One might assume that there is a clear understanding of who is covered under the Railway Labor Act: employees of airlines and railroads. However,thisisnotentirelythecase.TheUnited 82 Collective Bargaining and Dispute Resolution Figure 4.1. Employees relaxing during the United Auto Workers’ sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, in the mid1930s . The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), also knownastheWagnerAct,passedthroughCongressin1935. Reversing years of federal opposition to organized labor, the statute guarantees the right of employees to organize, formunions,andbargaincollectivelywiththeiremployers. It assures that workers have a choice on whether to belong to a union and promotes collective bargaining as the majorwaytoensurepeacefulindustry -laborrelations.Theact also created a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to arbitrate deadlocked labor-management disputes, guarantee democratic union elections, and penalize unfair labor practicesbyemployers.However,manyunionsdidnotuse the NLRB in the first few years of its passage, choosing instead to strike for recognition, using methods such as the sit-down strike. Library of Congress. Statesisacountryboundbylaws,andtheselaws arewritteninwords;therefore,weareboundby thesewords.Itisinthedeliberationofthemeaning of certain words that we find contention in RLA coverage. The RLA was originally crafted to cover railroads , and the jurisdictional language in the act reflects this. The definition of carrier in the RLA refers to the railroad industry and not the airlines. This definition is essential in determiningwhatemployersandemployeesaresubjectto theRLA.TheoriginaldefinitioninTitleIofthe RLA by reference to the Interstate Commerce Act reads as follows: The term “carrier” includes any express company, sleeping car company,carrierbyrailroad,subject to the Interstate Commerce Act(24Stat.379,asamended;49 U.S.C. 1 et seq.), and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by or under commoncontrolwithanycarrier by railroad and which operates any equipment or facilities or performs any service (other than trucking service) in connection with the transportation, receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, and handling of property transported by railroad , and any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the business of any such “carrier.”3 Title II extended the RLA to “every common carrier by air engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, and every carrier by air transporting mail for or under contract with the United StatesGovernment.”WherenoU.S.mailistransported ,purelyintrastateoperationsarenot subject to the RLA. These definitions imply that not only are airlines and...