On the recordSeptember 23, 2010
I keep hearing the argument that you should not count a ``no'' vote; it is undemocratic. Today, at 2:15, the Senate will vote on a cloture motion, and everyone who does not vote is counted as a ``no'' vote as it requires 60 votes out of 100 to get cloture. So we have to make that point from the outset, No. 1. No. 2, this is not about being antiunion or against unions or promanagement. This is about a 75-year-old history in the United States of America for the essential service of commerce in terms of railroads and airlines. We have historically had the National Mediation Board rule that required a majority of the people who would be affected in the class rather than just a simple majority of those voting for a very precise reason: because it is a permanent decision, as referenced by the quotes in letters from the Under Secretary of Labor. While I understand the chairman's remark that the Under Secretary of Labor is just the Under Secretary of Labor, she is the Under Secretary of Labor appointed by the President of the United States. While the chairman says the courts have ruled in favor of this particular ruling of the National Mediation Board, the Supreme Court has twice said they are wrong. Granted, those were in other cases. But twice the National Mediation Board authority has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, and twice the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld it.
