Judge blocks union election at American Airlines

[The Northerner]

Source: Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily stopped a union-organizing election at American Airlines that was to begin next week.

U.S. District Court Judge Terry R. Means said on Wednesday that American was likely to win a lawsuit seeking to stop the election among passenger-service agents, so he granted a temporary restraining order.

...

The Communications Workers of America seeks to represent nearly 10,000 agents who take reservations and work at airports. It's the largest group of nonunion workers among American's 73,000 employees.

American argued that under a law enacted in February, the union didn't get enough workers to sign cards calling for a union-representation vote. It sued the U.S. mediation board in federal district court on May 2 to block the election.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i6GM6M8YLiPepNxbJ9pV9NrkgTRQ

[OnyxCollie]

1. Prick. nt

[patrice]

2. If CWA was going to lose a lawsuit anyway, doesn't this give them some time to do something about it

before proceeding?

[freshwest]

4. Yes, they have time. AA is defying Senators and the DOJ, or so it appears from the CWA website:

"The airline claims it has a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, but Senate leaders have told American Airlines that its interpretation of the law is wrong,” Rusher said. “American Airlines’ argument of ‘irreparable injury’ is based on that same wrong interpretation. It has no grounds for this action.” The Department of Justice also has said the airline's claims are without merit.

In a May 15 letter to American Airlines CEO Thomas Horton, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Committee Chairmen John Rockefeller, Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Tom Harkin, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote, “We regret that the issue of retroactive applicability of the Federal Aviation Administration amendments (adopted in February) needs to be litigated. Beyond the clearly established precedent that limits the retroactivity of changes in the law, in this case, Congress included specific language in the amendments addressing this issue….

The Senate went even further, they wrote, with floor discussion by the two leading chairmen, Rockefeller and Harkin, confirming that “the showing of interest requirement set forth in this legislation should only apply prospectively.”

There is more here:

http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cwa_to_american_airlines_what_are_you_afraid_of_let_agents_vote

The really important part of this story is right here, so all is not lost:

A new voting period was set for June 21-Aug. 2, with notification to the airline set for June 14.

[AlbertCat]

3. Up next...

...in the tradition of passing judgment based of the future:

Conservative judges think Obama will probably lose the election in a few months, so they've put a restraining order on the election to stop Dems from voting.