Under rules that recognize unions if a majority of votes are supportive, the International Association of Machinists has won the right to represent nearly 3,000 Air Tran workers.
The National Mediation Board (NMB) has certified the International Association of Machinists as the exclusive bargaining agent for 2,900 service agents and reservation employees. IAM currently represents those employees at Air Tran's merger partner, Southwest Airlines, where they enjoy between $8-$9 more per hour than their AirTran counterparts.
Note, if efforts to roll back these rules succeed, a vote like this would likely never happen, simply because some workers will vote 'no representation' and others will sit it out, and their votes will be counted as 'no' votes. Those are rules that fail to be called basically democratic if they were applied to electoral politics, but Republicans are all-to-eager to impose third-world style democracy in American workplaces.
The Communications Workers of America posted a letter of what would happen if Congress were elected under those kinds of rules, and the entire House and Senate would be tossed out if nonvoters were counted as votes against incumbents.