The Hill: NLRB A Far Cry From Fair

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.thehill.com/2007/10/05/nlrb-a-far-cry-from-fair/

October 5th, 2007

Shameful. That’s the only way to describe the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) decision to reverse more than 40 years of precedent this week in its decision to allow a small minority of anti-union workers to strip the majority of their right to join a union and bargain collectively with their employer.

At a time when America isn’t working the way it should for working people, the Bush labor board is pulling the rug out from under our nation’s middle class through decisions that amount to a dramatic change in our nation’s labor laws.

The latest ruling by the Bush board, stemming from a case involving an agreement by Dana Corp. and Metaldyne Corp. with the United Autoworkers not to interfere in workers’ efforts to form a union if a majority has signed union authorization cards, would effectively permit a minority of employees to negate the majority’s decision to have a union. The ruling would extend to instances even where the employer has agreed to recognize the union through majority sign-up or “card check” process, and is already engaged in bargaining with the union for a contract. The ruling means that as few as 30 percent of the employees will be able to cause any such recognition to be set aside and force an NLRB election to try to get rid of the union.

In its decision, the Board fails to offer a valid explanation for these drastic changes in labor law. The two dissenting members of the five-member board, Wilma Liebman and Dennis Walsh, say this “sea change in labor law” will “cut voluntary recognition off at the knees.”

The fact is the NLRB process is so severely broken that the majority of workers in our country who successfully form a union now do so through a voluntary recognition process. In allowing a small group of workers to undermine both the majority of workers’ and the employer’s wishes, the labor board is effectively making a mockery of the law’s allowance for voluntary recognition. Workers who attempt to join or form unions through the NLRB election process are routinely subjected to harassment, intimidation and even fired, which is why momentum continues to build for the Employee Free Choice Act.

The NLRB, like many other government agencies under this administration, has shown itself again to be little more than a political tool of right-wing Republicans in their continuing assault on America’s working families.

It’s time for the politicization at the NLRB to stop. We need to elect a president in 2008 who will appoint fair-minded, non-partisan members to important government bodies like the NLRB. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act so workers’ basic freedoms are respected instead of infringed upon. And finally, we need to return the promise of America to our beleaguered middle class.

[TomClash]

1. Tom Geoghegan was right

Labor should never have bought into these so-called "progressive" statutes.