Airport workers and reservations agents at AirTran Airways voted to unionize in an election that ended Monday.
The decision by the workers to be represented by the International Association of Machinists comes as Orlando-based AirTran prepares to be acquired by Dallas-based Southwest Airlines.
Union officials have said AirTran employees do not want to go through a merger with Southwest without union protections. The Machinists union already represents the Southwest customer service agents and reservations agents, while the Transport Workers Union represents Southwest's ramp agents, among other workers. Although the Southwest-AirTran deal is expected to close in the next few months, it could take two years to combine the two airlines' operations.
With union representation, "we can go in there with someone actually fighting for us and looking out for what we want," said Ken Gordon, an AirTran ramp worker in Atlanta. He said some AirTran workers are worried about their jobs and seniority in the merger, and are concerned that their jobs could be contracted out.
Of the 1,864 votes counted, 978 voted for the Machinists union -- equivalent to about 52.5 percent. Another 16 submitted write-in votes. A total of 870 votes were against union representation. There were 2,904 eligible voters. Under a new National Mediation Board rule that went into effect last year, unions can organize airline workers by winning support from a majority of votes cast, rather than a majority of all eligible voters.
AirTran spokesman Christopher White said the company has "always respected the right of our crew members to decide on representation and we will respect this vote." AirTran has its largest hub in Atlanta and operates reservations centers in Atlanta, Carrollton and Savannah.
While many workers did not vote on union representation, Gordon said he hopes they get more involved when it comes time to vote on a contract. "We're going to need their vote when it's time for that," he said.
Several previous attempts to unionize AirTran's airport and reservations agents have failed, including an attempt in 2009 which failed when the union did not submit enough signed cards from interested workers to trigger an election.
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