Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), sent a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch today urging the Senator to insure that the Title IX provision is included in the final iteration of FAA reauthorization. Title IX undoes the National Mediation Board’s controversial ruling that facilitated unionization by changing union election standards.
For a PDF version of the letter, click here.
Norquist writes:
Dear Senator Hatch:
On behalf of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and millions of taxpayers nationwide, I am writing about the FAA Reauthorization Bill and the importance of including Title IX of the House-passed version in the final post-conference FAA bill Congress sends to the President.
With the GOP now controlling the House, we’ve seen the Administration consistently circumvent the will of Congress by misusing agencies to promote their pro-union agenda. From the National Labor Relations Board to the Department of Labor to the National Mediation Board (NMB), the Administration has stacked these agencies with union activists eager to undermine workers’ rights to further unions’ influence.
Given your longstanding role as a worker advocate and staunch opposition to forced unionization, I wanted to emphasize importance the Title IX provision is. Title IX of the FAA Reauthorization bill would overturn the National Mediation Board’s minority rule decision—simply restoring union election rules that were in place for over 75 years. The NMB’s new rule mandates that a majority of voting members are required to certify a union, not a majority of all members of a workforce. This ruling is not in the least bit surprising given that two of the three NMB members are former union officials.
For 75 years both Republican and Democrat Administrations operated under the old rule which resulted in inordinately high unionizations rates in the transportation industry. Currently 60 percent of airline employees and 84 percent of railroad workers are unionized compared to 7 percent of all private sector workers. Clearly, unions had little trouble winning elections under the old rules.
Despite union efforts to strip Title IX from FAA reauthorization, the House managed to pass the FAA bill with Title IX intact—the Senate version did not include a similar provision. Title IX is about whether or not Congress will allow the National Mediation Board to unilaterally upend 75 years of accepted labor law in pursuit of partisan goals.
Title IX is a referendum on who will write the laws in this country, Congress or unelected bureaucrats.
It is for these reasons that I urge you to include Title IX in the final version of the FAA Reauthorization bill.
Onward,
Grover G. Norquist