Unions join nationwide protest against anti-union NLRB
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Under the leadership of President
George W. Bush appointees, a federal
board that is supposed to uphold
union rights in the workplace has been
working steadily to weaken those
rights. In ruling after ruling, a three-
person majority on the five-member
National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) has taken away workers right
to unionize and made it easier for em-
ployers to fight unionization.
To top it off, the NLRB is refusing
to negotiate a new contract with a
union that represents its own employ-
ees.
In mid-November, the AFL-CIO
and Change to Win federation held
protests at NLRB offices in at least 16
cities, including Portland. And union
leaders are counting down to the day
when a Democratic president could
reverse the balance on the Board.
The NLRB has two parts. The five-
member Board functions like a
Supreme Court of labor law. The Of-
fice of the General Counsel investi-
gates and prosecutes “unfair labor
practices” and conducts elections to
determine whether workers want a
union. Together, they are supposed to
enforce and interpret the National La-
bor Relations Act — the law that sets
the process for private-sector workers
to unionize and bargain with their em- days. Then the issue would be re-
solved in an election conducted by the
ployers. But both sides are right now
NLRB.
led by Bush appointees who appear
On the same day, the Board ruled
intent on interpreting the law in ways
that employers can remove recogni-
that make things harder for unions.
The current
Board has stripped ‘If the NLRB won’t honor the law in
millions of workers
the public sector, can those who work
of the right to
unionize, including for private-sector companies under
graduate teaching
and research assis- the NLRB’s jurisdiction count on the
tants, temporary
NLRB to uphold the law and protect
agency workers,
their rights?’
and workers such
as charge nurses
who act as supervi-
tion of a union without an election if a
sors even in a very limited way.
majority of workers sign a petition
Then in September, the Board
calling for decertification.
struck back at the “card check” meth-
Another ruling is aimed at union
od of unionization, which unions have
“salts,” pro-union workers who seek
increasingly used in recent years as a
employment at a workplace in order
legal alternative to what they see as a
to further a union campaign. The
cumbersome and unbalanced NLRB
Board ruled that employers who re-
election process. In card check,
fuse to hire workers because of union
unions ask employers to voluntarily
affiliation can’t be found in violation
recognize a union for a group of
of the law unless the general counsel
workers when the union presents au-
thorization cards signed by the major- proves that the applicant had a “gen-
uine interest in employment.”
ity. Now, for the first time since 1935,
Meanwhile, the other side of the
the Board is saying that such employ-
NLRB, the Office of the General
ers have to notify workers that they
Counsel, is refusing to negotiate a
can reverse that voluntary recognition
contract with an independent union
if union opponents gather signatures
that represents about 850 of the
of 30 percent of workers within 45
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NLRB’s 1,875 employees — the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board Union
(NLRBU). Federal employees have
their own set of rules for unionization,
and the process is overseen by the
Federal Labor Relations Authority
(FLRA). On Nov. 12, a federal admin-
istrative law judge with the FLRA
ruled that the NLRB broke the law
when it refused to bargain with the
union in the officially certified bar-
gaining unit. The NLRB is expected
to appeal the decision.
The dispute began in 2005 when
the union moved to consolidate four
separate groups of NLRB employees
into one national bargaining unit. The
new unit would include both profes-
sional and nonprofessional employees
in the agency’s 32 regional offices,
plus nonprofessional employees of the
general counsel and Board in Wash-
ington, D.C. [A second union repre-
sents attorneys and professional staff
in the Board’s D.C. headquarters.]
NLRB management disagreed with
the consolidation, but the FLRA sided
with the union, and workers approved
the consolidation in a vote. Then the
NLRB, under the direction of general
counsel Ronald Meisburg, simply re-
fused to bargain a new contract. The
union is calling for Meisburg to re-
sign.
Meisburg was a “recess” appoint-
ment (a presidential appointment
when the Senate was in recess) of
President Bush in January of 2006.
The Senate confirmed his appoint-
ment in August of 2006.
“If the NLRB won’t honor the law
in the public sector,” said NLRBU
President Eric Brooks, “can those
who work for private-sector compa-
nies under the NLRB’s jurisdiction
count on the NLRB to uphold the law
and protect their rights?”
The AFL-CIO, in its mid-Novem-
ber demonstrations, called on the
NLRB to close for renovation until
the Board is more balanced.
In a sense, that could actually hap-
pen, if Senate Democratic leaders lend
a hand. The AFL-CIO is asking Sen-
ate leaders to refuse to confirm Bush
appointees to the Board, said AFL-
CIO Organizing Director Stewart
Acuff.
The five-year term of Republican
NLRB board chair Robert Battista is
set to expire Dec. 16. Two other seats
on the Board could also become va-
cant, because they were recess ap-
pointments. Recess appointments ex-
pire when the Senate adjourns, which
it will do in late December. The presi-
dent is not allowed to make a recess
appointment twice for the same indi-
vidual. So Republican Peter Kirsanow
and Democrat Dennis Walsh would be
off the Board come the new year if the
Senate does not confirm their appoint-
ments.
That would potentially leave just
two Board members, a Democrat and
a Republican, and the Board would be
deadlocked, unable to issue more rul-
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