PSA Is Cleared in Union Case : Teamsters Had Alleged Undue Election Pressure
Pacific Southwest Airlines did not illegally influence its flight attendants to hold a representational election that would replace the Teamsters Union with the Assn. of Flight Attendants, the National Mediation Board ruled Tuesday.
The board will reschedule a representational election that was postponed in April after the Teamsters filed a complaint with the federal agency, NMB spokesman Meredith Buel said.
NMB ruled that PSA did not “promote the Assn. of Flight Attendants and undermine” the Teamsters in the spring when more than half of PSA’s 984 flight attendants petitioned the NMB to stage the representational election.
The Teamsters alleged that PSA management personnel violated the Railway Labor Act, which prohibits companies from taking sides in representation elections. NMB ruled that there was no merit to Teamsters allegations that PSA managers “interfered with employees’ freedom of choice” by giving AFA representatives access to company property but denying access to Teamster representatives.
The NMB investigation suggested that the “pattern of activity alleged by (the Teamsters) was neither initiated nor encouraged” by PSA.
The board ruled that “letters, petitions and Telexes which were circulated on PSA property were generated by PSA employees, not management officials.”
NMB also discounted a Teamsters allegation that PSA allowed AFA to disseminate election materials on company property while forbidding the Teamsters the same access.
And the board found no basis for AFA allegations that the Teamsters engaged in “unlawful surveillance and threats that interfered with voting.”
In early April, AFA presented NMB with election cards from what an AFA spokeswoman has described as “an overwhelming majority” of PSA’s flight attendants. The Teamsters lodged their complaint with NMB April 13. NMB investigators subsequently interviewed PSA managers, Teamsters-represented employees and AFA organizers.
PSA was sold to USAir Group Inc. in May for $485 million. It since has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the airline holding company based in Arlington, Va.
