By going on summer recess for the next five weeks, until September 5, the United States Congress in its battle with the FAA over $24 million dollars in funding for subsidized airline service to low traffic rural airports stands to cost the U.S. Treasury $1.2 billion dollars in uncollected federal taxes on airline tickets, as seen in the attached video clip and slide show which accompany this report.
That is just for starters. The congressional stalemate has also resulted in the furlough of 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration employees and layoffs for about 70,000 airport construction workers, at a critical time during the height of summer building projects when favorable weather conditions enable such work, as well as contributing to the economic slowdown, according to reports published on Thursday, August 4, 2011 by WBUR Here and Now, Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, the National Journal, CNN, and multiple other information sources.
While air traffic controllers, Federal Air Marshals, and TSA security officers have not been laid off because they are considered essential employees, some other FAA personnel, including air safety inspectors, are working without pay, and were told to charge expenses to their personal credit cards, hopefully for future reimbursement.
As Mary Jane Credeur, aviation reporter for Bloomberg News explains it, the matter of $24 million in funding subsidies for rural airline service is a smoke screen, a red herring.
What is really driving this issue, led by conservative Republican members of Congress, are changes in the National Mediation Board (NMB) that favored union efforts to organize airlines, such as the recent close vote for unionization at Delta Air Lines (DL), after their consolidation merger with Northwest (NW).
Republicans want to reverse an NMB rule that union-organizing elections should be decided by a simple majority of those who vote, as is currently the case in all local, state, and national political elections.
Instead, conservatives want to revert to a decades-old rule that stipulates that in airline elections, eligible voters who don’t cast a ballot be counted as voting "no."
These sentiments are particularly strong in the twenty-two U.S. states, mostly in the southern or western U.S., which have passed Right-to-work laws, that are allowed under provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act.
Such legislation prohibit agreements between labor unions and employers that make membership, payment of union dues, or fees a condition of employment, either before or after hiring, thus requiring the workplace to be an open shop.
Many carriers, including Delta Air Lines, Federal Express, and others are opposed to employees organizing into unions, which usually translate into higher wages and increased operating costs for such airlines.
Some are calling the latest Congressional standoff not only detrimental to the public good in favoring big business, and promoting higher fares, but also hypocritical, and at odds with stated goals of fostering full employment and n expanding economy.
Not all Republicans are united in this ideological battle of union busting. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has broken ranks with other House and Senate Republicans, saying "This just does not make sense. Is that fiscal responsibility? I don’t think so. It doesn't pass the smell test."
Members of the Obama administration, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt are also outraged by the battle lines drawn up by the current majority party in Congress. Both have pleaded for common sense to prevail.
As CNN reported just hours ago, Mr. LaHood has been urging members of Congress to return to Washington from their summer break and, at a minimum, pass a temporary funding measure allowing the FAA and other workers to return to their jobs.
Similar FAA funding bills have previously been passed twenty times without having other issues, such as rural airport service or labor rules added as conditions for approval. Secretary LaHood is asking Congress to not only "talk the talk" about promoting employment, but as he puts it, also "walk the walk."
President Obama addressed the issue yesterday from the White House, in remarks reported by the National Journal, saying "Some of you may be aware of the fact that the FAA routinely gets its authorities extended through Congress; it’s happened 20 times since 2007. This time, Congress has decided to play some politics with it. And as a consequence, they left town without getting this extension done."
UPDATE: In late breaking news reported by The New York Times and other sources, an agreement has been reached in a Senate vote expected on Friday, August 5, 2011 that would extend funding for the FAA through Friday, September 16, 2011, and would allow all furloughed employees to return to work by Monday, August 8.
It is understandable that politics is a rough and tumble game, but when the impact of such actions hold the whole country hostage, as in the case of the recent battle over extending the national debt ceiling, and again now in this issue with the FAA, the public and pundits alike are wondering if things haven't gotten out of hand.
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