D.C. Circuit Enforces NMB Voting Rule

The D.C. Circuit (2-1), in Air Transport Assoc. v. NMB, enforced the NMB's new election voting rule.  As you might remember, that rule gave covered unions a win in an election if a majority of employees voting selected the union, as opposed to the old rule, which required a majority of eligible voters to select the union. The majority deferred to the agency's policy judgment and rejected the argument that the Railway Labor Act's langauge barred the change; indeed, the court repeatedly noted that the act said little on the topic, thereby warranting agency deference.  Judge Henderson, dissenting, stated that the RLA's reference to a "majority" of employees selecting a union mandated the previous rule.  Interestingly, she even refers to the Chevron "invention"--which seems an odd way of describing a doctrine that a D.C. Circuit judge has to apply in more cases than they can count.

Hat Tip: Patrick Kavanagh & Dennis Walsh

-JH