Why the NMB matters to us

This week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved the Senate one step closer to confirming former AFA and IBT Attorney Dierdre Hamilton to serve on the National Mediation Board (NMB), which will also put in place a majority NMB in support of workers and our rights to organize and collectively bargain.

The NMB is a small but important agency for Flight Attendants and aviation workers. It oversees union elections, contract negotiations and enforcement in the rail and aviation industries.

The current corporate-friendly NMB took an unprecedented action a few years ago to delay an election a whole year to conduct because management claimed “interference” from the union during the organizing. Never before has the agency even investigated company interference prior to an election to protect workers’ rights. That’s how bad the NMB has been under appointment by the previous administration and why it is so important for us to have the new NMB members in place. Incidentally, the workers stayed organized through the year-long delay and nonstop anti-union propaganda to overwhelmingly vote for their union.

This time, when we’re ready to file for an election, we’ll have an NMB majority that won’t pull out the stops to help management keep us from our rights.

President Biden has moved to replace corporate-friendly appointees with pro-worker nominees on federal panels and agencies that have power to protect worker organizing rather than side with corporations to thwart our efforts to gain rights at work. Once the Senate confirmation is complete and Ms. Hamilton is on the board, it’ll check another important box toward locking in our union and all of the rights that come with it.

Our campaign for a union and a real voice at Delta is heating up—let’s keep the momentum growing so we can file for an election with an overwhelming majority in 2022. Sign a card and get involved with our campaign now. This is our campaign and just like any democracy, it will be a success when more of us are actively involved. Let’s lock in everything we love and work to change what we don’t like with a union contract!