I’m all for new safety measures included in the FAA Reauthorization Bill that is backed by the families of victims from last year’s Continental Flight 3407 disaster in Clarence Center. Their loved ones paid the ultimate sacrifice for shortfalls in aviation rules.
However, I’m appalled that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is being singled out for holding up the bill. A share of the blame belongs to the members in the House of Representatives who included a labor provision in the bill that has nothing to do with air travel safety. They, along with a national labor group, have played with the emotions of the victims’ families.
Corker initiated the hold because of a provision in the House version of the bill that would allow FedEx drivers to organize locally under the National Labor Relations Act. The provision has the backing of the Teamsters, the labor group that also deserves a share of the blame. Memphis-based FedEx, naturally, opposes the measure.
After meeting with victims’ families, Corker has pulled back from his position, allowing the bill to reach the Senate floor. Apparently he was assured that the provision won’t be included in the Senate’s final version of the bill.
The hold would have required a 60-member majority to pass the bill, which likely wouldn’t have occurred until next week. The victims’ families, understandably, want quick passage. While the bill was temporarily held up, some members of the Families of Continental Flight 3407 group felt Corker was acting selfishly, or putting his home state ahead of others.
While this may be true to a point, there has been no apparent outrage at the House members who included the FedEx provision, nor at the Teamsters who are capitalizing on the sudden loss of 50 lives to push their own, selfish agenda.
Language in the bill would potentially allow FedEx Express drivers an easier process to unionize in Tennessee, one of 22 states, mostly in the Midwest and Southeast, known as a right-to-work state. Employees in right-to-work states have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. That right doesn’t exist in most left-leaning states, such as New York.
According to www.commercialappeal.com, a Memphis-based Web site, “The workers are now covered by the Railway Labor Act, but the House language would extend that law's jurisdiction only to employees requiring certification by the Federal Aviation Administration. Killing the House provision before it can be considered in a House-Senate conference is a top FedEx legislative priority.”
While FedEx has its own reasons to see this portion of the bill go away, the Teamsters and labor-friendly House representatives are trying to use the Flight 3407’s crash to circumvent the 10th Amendment, which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Add-ons to bills are nothing new in Washington, D.C. and the 50 state capitals. They’re common for mundane items such as renaming federal buildings and authorizing commemorative postage stamps. They’re also used for selfish purposes such as items like the so-called “bridge to nowhere” that would have been built to connect a small Alaska town to an island airport at a cost of $320 million several years ago.
Dirty politics? You bet. But not just on Corker’s part. The blame should also be placed squarely on the shoulders of those who had the unmitigated gall to use the pain and suffering of the Flight 3407 families for their own personal interests.
Thankfully, the bill is moving forward. Let’s hope that the victims’ families don’t have to be put through another emotional wringer for the sake of political agendas.
John Hopkins is the night city editor of the Tonawanda News. His column appears Thursdays. Contact him at john.hopkins@tonawanda-news.com.
