Labor/Employment

The merger of United and Continental Airlines is on track to be completed by the end of the year, United CEO Jeff Smisek told shareholders Thursday according to reports.

Reuters is reporting that Smisek said Thursday that United and Continental should receive a single operator designation from the Federal Aviation Administration by year's end. The companies have already begun combining their operations and repainting planes with the United name on Continental's colors, but they have temporarily remained separate airlines.

United agreed to buy Continental in 2010 for $3.17 billion.

The unions that are competing to represent workers at the Transportation Security Administration are both pushing lawmakers in the Senate to reject a $270 million cut in funding for airport security screeners that recently passed the House, as well as a measure aimed at curbing the eventual victor's influence.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) sent letters this weeks to Sens. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) calling on them to remove the provision from Department of Homeland Security's appropriation bill, where it was added last week by House members. Inouye chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Landrieu leads the panel's subcommittee on Homeland Security.

Lieberman is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Akaka chairs that panel's subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the Federal Workforce.

In the letter, NTEU President Colleen Kelley wrote that the budget cut, which was designed by supporters of privatizing airport security personnel to reduce the number of federal workers TSA could hire, would deal "a significant blow to morale at the agency.”

Kelley said the amendment would result in the loss of 8,000 jobs.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and two other House Republicans introduced legislation last week that would end the ability of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to sue states.

The bill is a reaction to the NLRB's decision to sue Arizona and South Dakota, both of which have passed laws requiring secret ballot unionization elections. The suit is designed to nullify those laws, which the NLRB says conflict with worker rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRB also threatened to sue Utah and South Carolina, but is hoping the action against two states would ultimately lead to the termination of the laws in Utah and South Carolina.

The National Mediation Board said this week it would investigate a union election held last year for Delta Airlines', triggering criticism from conservatives who are already riled up about a separate union issue at an airplane manufacturer.

The Association of Flight Attendants contested the results of the Nov. 3, 2010  election that was scheduled after Delta, which is largely non-unionized, merged with Northwest Airlines, which does have unions.  The AFA alleged Delta interfered with the election, leading to its loss, and the NMB agreed.

"The Railway Labor Act provides that shall be the board's duty to investigate representative disputes and to 'insure the choice of representatives by the employees without interference, influence or coercion exercised by the carrier," NMB General Counsel Mary Johnson wrote in a letter dated June 1.

"After reviewing the submissions provided by AFA and Delta, I find that in order for the board to determine whether the laboratory conditions were tainted, further investigation is needed."

A key South Carolina senator predicted Tuesday that the tenure of President Obama's choice to be Commerce secretary at Boeing will be a topic of conversation when his nomination is debated.

A spokesman for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that when the chamber has to vote on businessman John Bryson's nomination to replace Gary Locke, Republican lawmakers would likely look to make a point about the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing for allegedly retaliating against labor strikes by building a new plant in South Carolina.

"In light of the NLRB’s unprecedented complaint against Boeing, one would expect that Mr. Bryson’s service on the company’s Board of Directors when they created the second 787 assembly line in South Carolina will be discussed at-length during confirmation,” Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said in a statement. 

Critics of the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) lawsuit against airplane manufacturer Boeing denounced President Obama's choice of a member of the airline's board of directors to be secretary of Commerce.

On Tuesday, Obama tapped businessman John Bryson to replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whom Obama nominated to be ambassador to China. Locke is replacing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), who is anticipated to make a run for the 2012 GOP nomination to challenge Obama next year.

Bryson, 67, is a member of the board of directors of Boeing, which the NLRB has sued for allegedly retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by planning to open a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina. Boeing has currently been building 787-model airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, but South Carolina is a “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

The conservative Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) said Monday afternoon that Boeing's decision must be OK if Obama thinks a member of its board of directors should be in his Cabinet.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday in a speech in crucial 2012 primary state South Carolina that the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing was proof of big government's ability to destroy jobs.

Speaking at the Five Points Rotary Club, Gingrich slammed the NLRB, which has sued Boeing for allegedly retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by planning to open a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina. Boeing has currently been building 787 airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, but South Carolina is a “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

Gingrich said Friday the lawsuit was an "illegal action" that "puts all those jobs at risk."

"Here in South Carolina you are witnessing first hand and up close another glaring proof of the corrupting nature of big government and it ability to destroy jobs," Gingrich said in prepared remarks released by his campaign. "I’m speaking, of course, about the effort by the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board to stop Boeing’s Dreamliner plant from opening up in Charleston."

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell cited the NLRB decision on Boeing in calling the Obama administration "thuggish."

The inroads labor unions have made in the transportation sector are being met with fervent resistance from Republicans. 

The NLRB is suing Boeing, where Bill Daley had been on the board of directors, for allegedly breaking labor laws.