Flying Towards Anarchy



 In a move that some say is a preview of coming attractions for a debt ceiling shutdown, the Federal Avaiation Administration lost all funding as of 12:01 Saturday night.  As a result, thousands of workers are being laid off nationwide -- the total could quickly go  up to 90,000, and the government is losing an estimated 30 million a day in tax revenues.  The ostensible reason is that Republicans are refusing to authorize funding unless Democrats agree to a 16.5 million dollar cut in subsidies to small airports -- a mere blip in a $9,793 million budget.  But the real reason for the shutdown is the Republicans' insistence on a rider to the legislation overturning a National Mediation Board decision that allows unionization in the industry based on a simple majority of workers who actually vote, rather than needing a majority of all workers.

Perviously, the profoundly anti-democratic rule for the airline and rail industry was that a majority of all workers was needed in order to unionize, not just those who vote.   In essence, under the old rule someone who didn't bother to vote was counted as a "no" vote regardless of his or her actual preference.  This is different from workers in other industries, where the rule is that a majority of workers actually voting is what counts.  Last year, the National Mediation Board changed the rule to make it like the National Labor Relations Act.  Unsurprisingly, business leaders and their Republican allies in Congress protested the change, claiming it was a sop to "Big Labor."

I have yet to see a reasoned explanation of why the rule shouldn't be that a majority of votes cast is what determines a union election.  It's particularly rich hearing politicians decry the ruling.  After all, they are elected by a majority of votes cast, and they pass legislation based on a majority of votes cast.  Shouldn't politicians be in favor of more democracy, not less?

The FAA debacle shows the extent to which the Republican leadership will go for business and against workers.  They simply don't care about the consequences of their actions, even if it means millions of dollars in taxes and thousands of jobs lost.  Like the debt ceiling crisis, the FAA shutdown shows that the sometimes those who cry the loudest about democracy and patriotism are the least democratic and patriotic among us.