Orrin Hatch: “I understand the anguish of my dear friend from Texas, and I don't disagree, except for one thing. The tax is not being…”

“I understand the anguish of my dear friend from Texas, and I don't disagree, except for one thing. The tax is not being charged, and that should be a savings to the customers and consumers who are using the air services. But whether it is or isn't, that takes away from the major issue, and there may be another issue on essential air service, I don't know, because I am not on these committees. I have been asked by our leadership to make these objections. What is important here--and it is not some itty-bitty little thing-- is that we have labor law regulators out of control. When the NMB--the National Mediation Board--which is run by a bunch of Democrats--comes out and does away with 75 years of labor law with just the stroke of a pen and makes employee votes not important, that is not some little itty-bitty issue. That is a big-time issue. For 75 years unions have been winning union elections by getting a majority of the employees in a firm, not by getting a majority of those who vote. Those other people, whether they vote or not--and they may be sick, they may be ill, they may not have been able to be there, they may have been out of town--their votes are important as well. The unions have always had to get a majority, and they have done that year after year after year in most situations and in most union elections. Let me give an example: Let's say you have a company with 1,000 employees and only 100 show up, and 51 of them vote for the union.…”