Union victory is sweet, says Piedmont Airlines worker (video)

Three thousand baggage handlers and passenger service agents at Piedmont Airlines, based in Charlotte, N.C. and Phila., Pa., voted “Union, yes!” last year after the federal National Mediation Board remedied a rule that favored employers. (Video below)

Instead of counting the votes cast in a union election and allowing the majority to rule, the NMB counted all the workers in a bargaining unit whether they voted or not. That meant a “stay at home” vote was then counted as a “No.”

The Obama administration NMB remedied the blatant pro-employer bias in the Railway Labor Act, which regulates labor relations in the nation’s railroads and airlines, in July 2010.

At this year’s Communications Workers of America convention in Las Vegas, July 12, Piedmont Airlines ramp worker Abdur Dilal tells the more than 1,100 delegates and guests about the hard-fought campaign to win collective bargaining rights, and their next step: bargaining a contract.

Photo: Piedmont Airlines worker and union organizer Abdur Dilal speaks to CWA convention. (PW/Teresa Albano)