Listen to the radio spots here

The Communications Workers of America launched new ads targeting vulnerable Republican incumbents Sean Duffy (WI) and Chip Cravaack (MN) in an attempt to get them to vote in favor of an extension of the Federal Aviation Administration. As previously reported, Republicans refuse to extend the authorization for the FAA on a long-term basis unless Democrats cave and allow a provision in the extension that would effectively prevent airline employees from forming unions. The FAA previously shut down because of Republican stalling tactics and another shutdown could be on the way if an extension isn't passed in the next few weeks.

This same conflict led to a partial FAA shutdown last summer, and it will again unless one of the parties blinks, or Congress once again passes a stopgap bill. To force the GOP’s hand, Communications Workers of America are targeting vulnerable Republicans Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Chip Cravaack (R-MN) with week-long, one-minute radio ads, hoping to build moderate GOP support for the Dem position.

“Both Rep. Cravaack’s and Rep. Duffy’s constituents deserve to learn of their role in voting against fair elections and remaining complicit in the continued obstruction of a sorely-needed job creation bill,” said CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson.

The House and Senate have been grappling for months over a provision in the House GOP’s FAA reauthorization bill that would count abstentions as “no” votes when airline and rail workers want to form a union. Democrats were once thought likely to cave on the issue, but have held their ground on the issue as the public has soured on GOP-driven shutdown threats.

Republicans, led by Rep.John Mica (FL), who have been attempting to undercut workers rights in the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration received a stern rebuke from a federal court Friday. In 2010, the National Mediation Board set a new rule that discounted employees that don't vote in elections to create a union, rather than counting them as no votes. Republicans charged that the Board overstepped its bounds in creating the new rule. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court ruling that the new rules were legitimate.

“This court ruling demolishes the argument that the NMB overstepped its bounds in ensuring that NMB elections count only the ballots of those who actually vote,” said Candice Johnson, CWA Communications Director. “Just as importantly, today’s ruling means that the rationale used by many Republican leaders to continue to block the long-term FAA agreement is null and void. This ruling settles this issue once and for all: Republicans cannot continue to block the upgrades and job benefits of the FAA over a provision that has the force of law, fairness, and common sense behind it.”

As the D.C. Circuit’s majority opinion reads, “For seventy-five years, the National Mediation Board counted non-voters as voting against union representation, thereby requiring a majority of eligible voters to affirmatively vote for representation before a union could be certified. In 2010, the Board issued a new rule: elections will henceforth be decided by a majority of votes cast, and those not voting will be understood as acquiescing to the outcome of the election. Appellants challenge the new rule, claiming that it violates the statute and is arbitrary and capricious. Rejecting these arguments, the district court granted summary judgment to the Board.”

The judicial challenge was led by the Air Transport Association, primarily Delta Air Lines. With a district court already ruling in the NMB’s favor, today’s appellate court ruling severely damages the claim that the NMB did anything except bring its elections in line with basic democratic principles and the standard followed in every U.S. election.

“Republican leaders and others obsessed with union-busting are blocking the FAA Reauthorization needlessly over a provision that a series of courts have now declared as fair and valid. House Republican leaders should admit that their true motive is to deny workers’ their right to a union voice, rather than reach a sensible agreement over the FAA Reauthorization bill,” Johnson said.

Workers confront John Mica in Houston

The Communications Workers of America are taking on the House Transportation Committee Chair, Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who is holding the Federal Aviation Administration hostage over an assault on union organizing rights. CWA launched MicaWatch to expose the real motives behind Mica's attempts to shutdown the FAA in order to make it impossible for workers at airlines to unionize. They are also targeting Mica and two dozen other members of Congress with robocalls and mailers into their districts that tell the truth about what Mica and his allies are doing.

The FAA currently is only authorized through September 16 and will again partially shutdown if a deal is not made before then. In July, the agency was shutdown as a part of this fight. The earlier shutdown cost taxpayers $400 million, delayed needed infrastructure projects and left thousands of workers without income while Mica and Delta played political games. Democrats are attempting a permanent reauthorization that has been blocked by Mica over union election rules. As Laura Clawson at Daily Kos noted:

They want to revert to an old system of counting votes in union representation elections, in which instead of counting the votes actually cast, even workers who didn't vote are counted—as having voted no, of course. Republicans are demanding this despite the fact that if congressional elections were held by this standard, there would be no one in the House of Representatives.

Mica admitted that the FAA shutdown was a "tool" to get the rules on union elections pushed through. Delta is the leading proponent of the rules changes and has lobbied Congress furiously to get them passed. In the 2010 cycle alone, Mica recieved $170,000 in contributions to his campaign and leadership PAC from the air transport industry.

The workers most affected by Mica's antics are covered by the Association of Flight Attendants, an affiliate of the CWA.

CWA has set up a petition to pressure Delta to do the right thing.

Since we've already set the precedent of negotiating with hostage-takers, I think we all know how this one will probably end:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republicans have backed Democrats into a corner: Surrender Tuesday or the FAA stays shut for the rest of the summer.

House members left town Monday evening after passing their default-dodging debt limit deal. And they did it with an impasse between the two sides of the Capitol over a temporary Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill unresolved.

The Senate is still in town, set to vote on the debt deal Tuesday. That means the only options left on the FAA are either for the standoff to last until Congress returns in September, or for the Senate to cave. And the Senate says it isn’t budging.

Earlier Monday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood traveled to New York’s LaGuardia airport to unleash a blistering critique of the congressional stalemate, and to implore Congress not to go on vacation before the funding dispute was resolved. LaHood says 4,000 FAA workers have been furloughed and 70,000 construction workers idled. The FAA also said some airport inspectors are being required to go to work — but can’t be paid until the funding issue is settled.

To recap, the GOP-controlled House two weeks ago passed a temporary authorization extension for the FAA. But the bill included a tweak taking a bite out of federal subsidies for just a small handful of regional airports. Senate Democrats refused to swallow the bill, instead insisting on a “clean” extension. The FAA, and nearly 4,000 furloughed workers, have been sitting in the crossfire ever since.

In the background of all this is a partisan dispute over federal union rules. A longer-term FAA authorization bill is currently stalled in House-Senate talks because GOP lawmakers want to repeal an Obama Administration rule making it easier for workers at airlines and rail companies to organize. Senate Democrats, led by Rockefeller, have accused Republicans of using the short-term FAA bill as leverage over the union issue.

On Monday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-Va.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, tried to clear a pair of FAA bills through the Senate. One was the “clean” extension Democrats have been bucking for, the other was a new package of about $71 million dollars in regional airport subsidy cuts, far larger than the cuts Republicans are pushing.

[...] A Rockefeller spokesman said Monday that it was unclear whether jammed Senate Democrats would accede to the House FAA bill and reopen the agency.