How More Than 200 Employees Have Been Forced Into a Union Only 8 of Them Voted For
By Russ Brown
Russ Brown is president of the Center for Independent Employees, a nonprofit foundation that provides legal representation and aid to independent employees who are opposed to union oppression in their workplaces. He is also a consultant to The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
Desperate for members and knowing the importance of getting in on the ground floor, the Association of Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America (AFA-CWA) saw an opportunity with startup airline Avelo.
The AFA-CWA recruited flight attendants to its cause almost before the airline got off the ground.
The union filed an application for an election when the company was in its infancy and there were only 14 eligible voters. At the time of the election, there were nearly 100 flight attendants, but through a loophole in the law, only the original 14 were allowed to vote, and of them, eight voted for the union.
Since then, the company has continued to grow. Now, Avelo Airlines’ 200-plus flight attendants are saddled up with a union voted in by eight people. Think of that: More than 200 people have been forced into an affiliation with an entity that only eight of them embraced.
And there’s still no contract. The AFA-CWA may claim to be adept at contract negotiations, but nearly two years have already passed with no end in sight to negotiations.
The union has a history of teaching its members the virtue of patience. At Omni Air International, the AFA-CWA’s negotiations took six years. At Spirit, negotiations took nine years—an eternity in today’s high-turnover workforce.
It’s not uncommon for idealistic employees to wave in a union, not knowing what they’re getting themselves into.
Unfortunately, the poor return on union membership is little known to the general public. These idealistic employees often end up with buyer’s remorse. But in some cases—like at Avelo—buyer’s remorse doesn’t capture the feeling, because the vast majority of these flight attendants never “bought” the union to begin with.
What has happened to them is affiliation by force. And sustaining the affiliation depends on pro-union propaganda, distractions, and bending the truth.
Take the case of Delta Air Lines, a refuge for employees seeking to avoid union headaches. AFA-CWA is desperately trying to unionize Delta’s nearly 28,000 flight attendants and has made false claims regarding 401(k) contributions, insinuating it has negotiated better deals at United.
In fact, it has never even made a proposal regarding 401(k) contributions. But when union dues are on the line, facts are the first casualty.
There is hope for flight attendants, however.
At Avelo, flight attendants are now taking control of their own destiny, using relatively new decertification rules that allow employees to oust burdensome unions. As one Avelo flight attendant put it, they’re focused on ensuring a truly representative referendum on the union.
“I want us all to have a voice,” she said.
Unfortunately, once a workplace becomes unionized, the only voice that gets heard is that of the union leaders. And once a workplace becomes unionized, it’s extremely difficult for workers to regain their individual voices by voting the union out.
In fact, it’s so difficult to decertify a union that a study by The Heritage Foundation found that 94% of all workers who are represented by unions did not vote for the union. Most were instead grandfathered into a union as a result of a single election that in some cases took place even before they were born. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Just as workers should be able to choose whether or not to join a union, they should be able to choose whether to leave a union. Union members will only have full rights when decertification is as easy as certification.
The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.