Group: FAA veto threat shows Obama administration a 'subsidiary' of labor

An advocacy group on Thursday accused President Obama of being beholden to “Big Labor” for threatening to veto the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill if a provision to change union organizing rules for railroad and airline employees is not removed.

“If anyone needed to be reminded that the current administration is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Labor, a veto threat on the FAA Reauthorization Act did the job," said Katie Gage, executive director of the Workforce Fairness Institute, which supports the rule change.

"The legislation being considered in Congress undoes a rule change by the National Mediation Board, which upended nearly a century of precedent requiring a majority of workers to support forming a collective bargaining unit in the airline and railroad industries,” Gage continued. 

“After giving nearly half a billion dollars to politicians, union bosses continue to get bailed out by President Obama. Our hope is that the U.S. House of Representatives sends a clear message to the administration and Big Labor that they will not be bullied and worker rights come first,” she said. 

The amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill would repeal a rule finalized by the National Mediation Board (NMB) in May of last year that allows workers at companies covered by the Railway Labor Act to form unions if a majority votes in favor.

Under the old rules, workers who did not cast ballots in union elections would be counted as "no" votes. Under the revised version, they would not be counted.

The fight over the union provision has overshadowed a bill that began as an effort to end a three-year delay in authorizing a long-term funding plan for the FAA. Opponents have assailed the proposal to change the NMB rules as "undemocratic," but House Republicans predicted this week the provision would remain in the bill.

If that happens, the White House said Wednesday, the president's "senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill."

Having worked with a Democratic-controlled Congress his first two years in office, Obama has used his veto powers sparingly. However, if the FAA bill does not "safeguard the ability of railroad and airline workers to decide whether or not they would be represented by a union based upon a majority of the ballots cast in an election," the White House made clear he would use it here.

As it has debated a larger FAA bill, which would fund the administration for four years, Congress has passed 17 short-term authorizations. The most recent stopgap measure, through September, was passed this week.

The first series of votes on the FAA bill are expected Thursday around 2:15 p.m.