Union targeting GOP lawmakers on FAA bill over Thanksgiving holiday

{mosads}”At issue is a group of ideologically extreme Republican Members of Congress, who along with Delta Air Lines remain unwilling to remove a contentious and unrelated provision about union elections from the FAA legislation,” the CWA announcement continued. “As a result, their obsession with union busting threatens to derail the benefits of the long-term FAA legislation for the foreseeable future.”

The CWA and Democrats in Congress have accused House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) and other Republicans of pushing to include language in a long-term FAA bill that would make it harder for transportation workers to unionize on behest of Delta.

The FAA, which last had a long-term reauthorization bill passed in 2004, has had 22 short-term extensions of its funding. The shutdown of the agency this summer led to about 4,000 workers being furloughed for 13 days and was estimated to have cost the federal government $30 million per day in lost sales taxes on airline tickets.

The CWA is the parent group for the union for flight attendants.

The lawmakers being targeted are Rep. Mica; Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.); Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.); Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.); Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.); Rep. Blake Farenhold (R-Texas); Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.); Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.); Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.); Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.); Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.); Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa); Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.); Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.); Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.); Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.); Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.); and Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.).