INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY : Dem-Packed NLRB May Rush Through Pro-Union Rulings

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=529662

By SEAN HIGGINS, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 04/07/2010 07:05 PM ET

After years of inactivity, the National Labor Relations Board is set to come roaring back. And everyone expects it to give Big Labor a new edge in its dealings with management.

Thanks to two recent NLRB recess appointments by President Obama, employers are bracing for new rules on workplace organizing efforts, including how and when the elections are held, which employees can be organized, what data must be turned over to unions during elections and what access they would have to workplaces.

Business could also face new restrictions on what they can tell employees during elections and new penalties that can be assessed for violating the NLRB rules, including mandatory unionization.

Backdoor Card Check?

Together, these would not be quite the same as the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act, also known as card check, that stalled in Congress last year, says Maurice Baskin, a labor lawyer with the firm Venable LLP. But they come close.

"I do think the biggest danger is that they would try to implement some sort of 'EFCA lite' by pushing the envelope in what the board can do," Baskin said.

Mike Eastman, the Chamber of Commerce's top labor lawyer, put it this way: "We're not holding our breath on any of the big, controversial cases."

FULL 3 page story at link.