Ah, the sweet smell of compromise. The good news is that the Federal Aviation Administration is likely to get its reauthorization before the Jan. 31 deadline; moreover, instead of another short-term extension it is likely to finally get a real, stable, long-term reauthorization; moreover, Republicans are dropping their demand to count workers who don't vote in union representation elections as having voted no. The bad news? Democrats made one big up-front compromise and the
National Journal is using the term "gentleman's agreement," as in:
The remaining disputes between Republicans and Democrats on the measure have been worked out in a gentleman's agreement among the congressional transportation gurus.
In exchange, Democrats have agreed to include a provision that would raise the threshold for rail and aviation workers expressing interest in forming a union from 35 percent to 50 percent.
In one sense, raising the threshold from 35 percent to 50 percent is inconsequential. You don't file for an election in which you'll need 50 percent-plus-one support if you only have 35 percent support. But remember when Republicans were fighting the Employee Free Choice Act and their big talking point was that it removed the sacrosanct "secret ballot"? Yeah, well, what the Employee Free Choice Act said was that once a majority of workers had signed cards saying they wanted a union, they had one. Now, Republicans are demanding that a majority of workers have to go through exactly that process, only after a majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union, they additionally have to go through a so-called "secret ballot" election, with management using the time between the petition for election and the election itself to try to persuade or intimidate them into voting against the union.
Obviously we need to hear more details, but my initial take is that this is something of a win. I would've expected Republicans to hold the FAA hostage to ... elimination of the National Labor Relations Board or something. But boy does this ever show how full of shit Republicans were with all that "secret ballot" nonsense.