Labor Union Blog

The National Mediation Board (NMB) has backed off its proposal that would have required employees at newly merged airlines to show “more than a substantial majority” before the NMB would extend union representation. The rule would have applied after one nonunion airline merged with a unionized airline.

Unions and congressional leaders had expressed outrage at the proposal, and the board withdrew it Thursday. The NMB is the federal agency that oversees and enforces the Railway Labor Act, which is the federal labor law that governs much of the transportation industry.