United loses challenge to food service union drive

Bloomberg

A vote on unionisation by 2,700 United Airlines in-flight catering workers can move forward over the company’s objections, the general counsel of the National Mediation Board ruled.
The workers, who prepare and transport food for flights, are the only group of front-line United employees who don’t have union representation. In January, the hospitality union Unite Here filed a petition, with support from three-quarters of United’s kitchen workforce, seeking a vote.
United Airlines responded with a complaint alleging fraud and misrepresentation by the union before the petition was filed, contending that Unite Here organisers had shown up at workers’ homes claiming to be representatives of the airline conducting a poll.
The NMB responded to the airline’s complaint by delaying the election in order to investigate the airline’s allegations, which the union denied.
In her ruling Wednesday, NMB General Counsel Mary Johnson wrote that after interviewing employees, the agency’s investigators had determined that “there is no evidence that employees did not understand that Unite Here was a union and was not a representative of United. Employees either signed a card out of a desire to support the organisation’s campaign.