All House Members Would Have Lost Under Election Rules They Seek for Workers
The House member leading the fight to deny aviation and rail workers fair union elections would have lost his seat by a 68-32 percent margin under the election rules he wants to impose on transportation workers.
Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wants to repeal last year’s new rule by the National Mediation Board (NMB) that says air and rail elections should be decided just like any other election—including congressional elections—by a majority of votes cast. Previously under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which covers rail and airline workers, each worker who did not cast a vote in a representation election was automatically counted as a “No” vote.
A new report from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) finds that not only would Mica be an overwhelmingly loser under those rules, but not one member of Congress would have won election if they had to play by the same rules Mica, Delta Airlines and other transportation corporations want to impose on workers.
The House version of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill that Mica and most House Republicans are pushing would repeal the new NMB rule. Using the old standard, CWA reports that Mica would have received just 32 percent of the votes in his 2010 reelection. Read the rest of this entry »
CWA, IBEW Back New ‘Golden Coffin,’ Corporate Governance Rules at Verizon
If I were my own boss, I might not be too critical of my performance or stingy with my pay and benefits. But in the corporate world, if you are the CEO and the chairman of the board, you’re pretty much your own boss.
Today in Louisville, Ky., Verizon shareholders, including members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW), are voting on three corporate governance proposals that would:
- Separate the role of chairman and CEO;
- Allow shareholders to pool their votes in director elections; and
- Allow shareholders to decide if an executive deserves a “golden coffin.”
