The IAM today officially notified the National Mediation Board (NMB), United Airlines and the Communication Workers of America’s Association of Flight Attendants division (CWA-AFA) that it is protesting the conduct of the recent representation election for Flight Attendants at United Airlines, Continental Airlines and Continental Micronesia.
The CWA-AFA engaged in at least five major breaches of the NMB’s voting rules, including:
• Continuously providing Flight Attendants with a direct hyperlink to the NMB’s voting site;
• Telling Flight Attendants to bring their secret VIN and PIN numbers to an illegal voting party;
• Collecting reports of how Flight Attendants voted;
• Misrepresenting Official NMB voting materials;
• Harassing and coercing Flight Attendants into voting for the CWA.
Additionally, United Airlines violated election rules to favor CWA by:
• Providing CWA greater access to Flight Attendants than the IAM;
• Allowing the CWA to place election propaganda in employee mailboxes;
• Allowing the CWA to alter company computers to show support for the CWA;
• Management openly supporting the CWA;
• Announcing a crossover hiring program during the laboratory conditions and then allowing the CWA to misrepresent it would lead to losing seniority.
“The repeated disregard for NMB election rules and the overt violations by the CWA and United/Continental management have placed the entire election process on trial,” said IAM General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. “The NMB must act to rectify this injustice and restore confidence in its election procedures.”
The IAM has asked that following an NMB investigation the Board overturn the results of the election and bar the CWA from participating in a re-run election.
The IAM’s complete submission to the NMB is posted below. All Flight Attendants are urged to download and review the documents to understand the breadth of the CWA’s violations. There is no set timeframe for the NMB to address the IAM’s protest.
IAM Protest
