Delta again in FAA labor fight

ATLANTA -- The Federal Aviation Administration faces another partial shutdown this month, as members of Congress square off in a dispute whose key combatants are Delta Air Lines and airline industry unions.

A stopgap funding measure expires in less than two weeks, and both Republicans and Democrats say they want to avoid a repeat of the 13-day shutdown in late July and early August. That stalemate forced 4,000 FAA employees -- not including air traffic controllers -- and 70,000 contract workers temporarily off the job.

Congress came up with a temporary compromise, but the chief sticking point -- a decision by the National Mediation Board to issue a new rule that makes it easier for employees in the airline and railroad industries to unionize -- remains unresolved, and the clock is ticking.

The unionization decision has evoked continuing outcry from Republicans and the airlines, in particular from largely nonunion, Atlanta-based Delta.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., sponsored a resolution in the Senate condemning the decision, but it failed in a floor vote. House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., inserted a provision in a long-term FAA funding bill to overturn the NMB ruling, but the Obama administration and the Democrat-run Senate rejected that idea.

In a recent speech at the White House, President Obama urged Congress to pass a "clean" extension of the FAA bill, meaning no policy changes such as the one Mica sought. The White House already has threatened to veto a bill that overrides the NMB's rule change.

Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin said last week that the company supports an extension of FAA funding but continues to oppose the NMB decision to issue the new rule, which Delta argues went far beyond the board's mandate.

"It's about restoring fairness and balance to an agency that's supposed to operate in a neutral manner," Laughlin said.

The FAA has been funded by a series of short-term bills since 2007 as the parties have wrangled over issues involving the industry. This spring the House passed a four-year, $59.7 billion bill and the Senate passed a two-year, $34.5 billion version. The House has not yet appointed members to a conference committee to iron out differences between the two bills.

Isakson, though he is one of the NMB decision's most strident critics, has been a go-between between the two bodies and has said that he is working to find a compromise.

"I agree with (Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.) that we need a reauthorization," Isakson said in a Senate floor speech in June. "But I also think we need a balanced playing field with NMB." Isakson said he agrees with Delta that the airlines, as well as the unions, should have the right to seek a court review of NMB decisions with which they disagree.