🗞️ Grounded: NLRB Orders Charlotte Airport Contractor to Bargain With Union After Three-Year Standoff

On April 7, 2026, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision and order against Jetstream Ground Services, Inc., a Jupiter, Fla.-based aviation ground support company operating at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, finding that the company had violated federal labor law by refusing to recognize and negotiate with Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ. The union had been certified as the workers' exclusive bargaining representative nearly three years earlier.

That certification came after secret-ballot elections held in March and May of 2023, covering employees who perform aircraft cleaning, cargo handling, mail handling and ramp services at Charlotte Douglas. Jetstream declined to bargain beginning around July 12, 2023, and never relented.

The company's legal strategy centered on two arguments. It contended first that the certified bargaining unit was not legally appropriate, and second that the NLRB had no authority over it at all. Jetstream argued it was subject instead to the Railway Labor Act, the federal statute governing labor relations for railroads and airlines and administered by the National Mediation Board rather than the NLRB. The distinction matters considerably to workers seeking union representation: the Railway Labor Act requires nationwide, system-wide bargaining units, making local organizing campaigns far more difficult to win.

The jurisdictional question had shadowed the airline services industry for years, with contractors and unions regularly fighting over which regulatory regime applied. The dispute was largely settled in late 2024. In November of that year, the National Mediation Board issued an advisory opinion in the related case of Swissport Cargo Services, 52 NMB No. 8, abandoning nearly four decades of precedent and concluding that third-party ground service contractors are not "common carriers by air" and therefore fall outside the Railway Labor Act's reach. On December 3, 2024, the NMB issued a separate advisory opinion applying that same reasoning directly to Jetstream, finding no Railway Labor Act jurisdiction in this case. The NLRB deferred to both rulings, settling the question of its authority over Jetstream.

With its jurisdictional defense exhausted, Jetstream raised a final argument: that the case had become moot because the company had dissolved its business and no longer employed any workers in the bargaining unit as of December 2025. The Board was unpersuaded. Settled precedent holds that a company's dissolution does not automatically extinguish liability for prior unfair labor practices, in part because a Board order binds not only the named respondent but also its officers, agents, successors and assigns.

The Board granted summary judgment in favor of the General Counsel and ordered Jetstream to cease its refusal to bargain, to negotiate in good faith with SEIU Local 32BJ upon request and to post the required notices to employees, both physically and electronically, for 60 consecutive days. Notably, the Board reset the clock on the union's certification period, ruling that it would begin only once Jetstream engages in good-faith bargaining, consistent with longstanding Board practice in cases where an employer's refusal to bargain has delayed the certification period.

Key Points

• Election and Certification: SEIU Local 32BJ won secret-ballot elections in March and May 2023 and was certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of Jetstream's Charlotte Douglas airport workers in May 2023.
• Refusal to Bargain: Jetstream refused to recognize or bargain with the union beginning July 12, 2023, a position it held for nearly three years.
• Jurisdictional Defense Rejected: Jetstream argued it fell under the Railway Labor Act and outside NLRB jurisdiction, a claim rejected in the original representation proceeding and again here, after the NMB's November 2024 Swissport advisory opinion and a separate December 2024 opinion specific to Jetstream both confirmed that ground service contractors are not covered by the RLA.
• "Going Out of Business" Defense Rejected: Jetstream's claim that it had dissolved and no longer employed bargaining unit workers did not render the case moot; prior unfair labor practices survive business dissolution under Board precedent.
• Order Issued: Jetstream was ordered to bargain on request, sign any resulting agreement and post employee notices for 60 days. The union's certification period resets from the date good-faith bargaining begins.
• Broader Context: The decision reflects a significant industry-wide shift following the NMB's Swissport ruling, which removed Railway Labor Act coverage from airline ground service contractors and placed them under NLRA jurisdiction, generally making union organizing more accessible at the local level.

Sources

Primary Source Author: Chairman James R. Murphy and Member Scott A. Mayer, National Labor Relations Board

Primary Source: Jetstream Ground Services, Inc. and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 32BJ, 374 NLRB No. 89 (April 7, 2026)

Primary Source Link: https://www.nlrb.gov/case/10-CA-324158

Supplemental Links

• NLRB Jurisdictional Standards: Railway Labor Act exclusion explained
• NMB Swissport Cargo Services Advisory Opinion, 52 NMB No. 8 (Nov. 2024)
• Morgan Lewis: NMB revokes RLA jurisdiction over airline service providers (Dec. 2024)
• Seyfarth Shaw: Swissport NMB ruling and its implications for derivative carriers
• NLRB Edge: NLRB jurisdiction over contractors to common carriers (Jan. 2025)
• 32BJ SEIU: Charlotte Airport Workers' organizing context and worker accounts
• Wikipedia: Railway Labor Act overview