Teamsters win bid to represent Continental workers

(AP) — The Teamsters won an election to represent Continental Airlines ground workers who had rejected bids by other unions in recent years.

The Teamsters said Friday that about 4,100 workers out of 7,600 voted to join the union.

The airline industry is among the most heavily unionized in the U.S. private sector. The Continental fleet service employees were among the largest groups of nonunion workers in the industry, according to labor officials.

"This is a big victory," Teamsters President James Hoffa said in an interview. "It proves there are people to organize out there."

Hoffa said the union won by generating excitement with big rallies at Continental's hubs in Houston, Newark, N.J., and Cleveland, and by reaching into the airline's smaller bases where previous organizing campaigns had failed.

The Teamsters will represent a group that includes baggage handlers and cargo agents in bargaining with Continental over wages and other contract terms. The union already represents mechanics at the nation's fourth-largest airline.

The union accused Continental of running an "anti-worker, anti-union" campaign.

Continental senior vice president of labor relations Mike Bonds said, "We respect the choice our co-workers have made." He promised that the company would focus on working together.

According to the National Mediation Board, 4,102 Continental workers voted to join the Teamsters and 27 wrote in the names of other unions. With 7,603 workers eligible to vote, the Teamsters won by 300 votes.

In 2008, the Transport Workers Union fell 314 votes short in its third bid to represent the same workers. The machinists' union had also lost previous elections.

The unions faced uphill fights because under federal labor law, workers who don't vote are counted as if they voted against union representation. Union officials say 10 to 15 percent of workers normally don't vote.

The National Mediation Board is considering changing the voting rules to require that unions achieve a majority just among those casting ballots, but employer groups are lobbying to keep the current system.

The Association of Flight Attendants has delayed an election at Delta Air Lines while the mediation board considers changing the rules. The Teamsters considered postponing their Continental bid but decided they could win under the current rules, Hoffa said.

"It was a gamble that worked," he said.

Richard Gritta, a University of Portland (Ore.) finance professor who studies airlines, said the industry's financial problems and massive job cuts played into the Teamsters' hands.

Airlines "are cutting capacity and that means jobs, which angers workers," he said. "It's scary for them."

Only about 12 percent of all wage and salary workers belong to unions, according to the Labor Department. Private-sector workers are about five times less likely than government employees to be union members. The Teamsters union has about 1.4 million members.