Amid all the bad news for workers from last week’s midterm elections, you probably missed one very good election result: 3,000 workers with Piedmont Airlines, a subsidiary of US Airways, voted to become members of the Communication Workers of America (CWA). The election results are a great victory for workers not just at Piedmont Airlines, but throughout US Airways. All of US Airways’ gate and ramp employees are currently unionized, with baggage handlers making $20 per hour. But baggage handlers at nonunionized work subsidiaries of US Airways Express, like Piedmont, make just half that. With Piedmont previously unorganized, US Airways is able to shift its passengers and flights to one of its nonunion subsidiaries, undermining and decreasing the need for the company’s unionized gate and ramp workers. But because Piedmont workers are now organized into a union, not only will Piedmont working conditions improve, but unionized US Airways employees will no longer be threatened by having work shifted to lesser paid Piedmont employees. ( Full disclosure : I began working as a part-time consultant on CWA’s campaign to organize airline workers in September.) Piedmont workers overcame a tough campaign of employer intimidation, including firings, which I highlighted on this website back in September (” Despite New Hailed Organizing Rules, Airline Workers Still Face Tilted Playing Field “). But workers were aided by the National Mediation Board (NMB) ruling, which governs labor relations in the airline and rail industries,
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