House sends FAA bill back to Senate

House sends FAA bill back to Senate    In what has been described as “an unusual amending process,” the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee combined and reaffirmed support for two significant aviation bills and returned the blended legislation back to the Senate, setting the possibility of a conference committee to reconcile the differing versions of the bills in the two chambers.
   The House bill includes a provision that may make it easier for workers to unionize at FedEx, a provision that was not included in the Senate version.
   By a vote of 276-145, the House approved the 2010 Federal Aviation Administration Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act (H.R. 1586) and returned it to the Senate. In the process, the House replaced the Senate's aviation language with the text of the 2009 Federal Aviation Authorization Act (H.R. 915) and the 2009 Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act (H.R. 3371), both of which passed the House last year.
   House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., said the bill provides historic investment levels for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs.
   The bill also includes a provision that amends the Railway Labor Act (RLA) to clarify that employees of an 'express carrier' shall be covered by the RLA only if they are employed in a position that is eligible for certification under FAA rules, such as mechanics or pilots, and they are performing that type of work for the express carrier. All other express carrier employees, such as truck drivers and baggage handlers, would be governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
   Oberstar said “this change would remove the disparity in current law that Federal Express drivers are governed under the RLA, which requires organization for collective bargaining on a nationwide basis, while drivers for the United Parcel Service (UPS) and other express carriers are governed by the NLRA, which permits organization on a local basis.
   The provision was debated by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and agreed to by a vote of 51-18.
   FedEx has battled the proposal to bring its drivers under the NLRA, with an ad campaign that mocked UPS commercials and called the proposal a “brown bailout.'