More signatures needed on
petition to save Post Office
A “We the People” petition to the
White House to “Save the Postal Serv-
ice — Save American Jobs” has col-
lected only 22,903 signatures (as of
press time).
The petition must obtain 100,000
signatures by May 24 in order to be re-
viewed by officials in the Obama Ad-
ministration and have an official re-
sponse issued.
The petition was spearheaded by
Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio in
conjunction with a bill — H.R. 630 —
he introduced to save the Post Office.
Similar legislation (S. 316) has been
filed in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vermont).
The petition states that roughly 80
percent of USPS financial losses since
2007 are due to a Congressional man-
date to prefund 75 years of future re-
tiree health benefits in a 10-year pe-
riod. In 2012, USPS lost a record $15.9
billion, but $11.1 billion of that loss
went to prefund health care.
The petition calls on USPS to main-
tain six-day delivery, to re-establish
overnight delivery standards to ensure
the timely delivery of mail and prevent
the closure of mail plants (and jobs),
and to end a 2006 ban prohibiting
USPS from offering new products and
services.
The petition asks: “Does the
(Obama) Administration support HR
630 and S 316 to make these changes,
save American jobs, and allow USPS
to remain competitive?”
Go to http://wh.gov/t95i and follow
the instructions to sign the petition.
(PHOTO LEFT) MDA Ambassador Emily Gallagher with her brother Caleb and mother Nina. (PHOTO RIGHT)
Retired firefighter Cal Eddy and Linda Alexander pose for photo during a break in the action. Eddy was the top
fundraiser. Alexander, a member of NALC Branch 82, helped coordinate the event.
Union members bowl, raise cash for MDA
Union members raised $12,000 at
the 24th annual Muscular Dystrophy
Labor Bowl. Since its inception in
1989, union members have donated
$351,025.75 to MDA.
Money is raised through pledges
and from a silent auction and goes to
buy wheelchairs and braces for chil-
NW Oregon Labor Council awards dinner June 8
The Northwest Oregon Labor
Council will host the 16th annual La-
bor Appreciation and Recognition
Night Saturday, June 8, at Milwaukie
Elks Lodge, 13121 SE McLoughlin
Blvd. Dinner tickets are $20 per per-
son. Raffle tickets also will be sold for
$1 each or seven for $5.
The dinner and awards ceremony
serves as a fundraiser for Labor’s
Community Service Agency.
The labor council is still accepting
cash and prize donations for the raffle.
Donations can be sent to: Northwest
Oregon Labor Council, 3645 SE 32nd
Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97202-
3019. For more information or to order
tickets, call 503-235-9444.
dren, as well as for research and sum-
mer camps. Muscular dystrophy is a
hereditary condition marked by a pro-
gressive weakening and wasting of the
muscles over time.
This year’s event, held on Sunday,
April 28, at Sunset Lanes in Beaverton,
attracted bowlers from 11 union locals,
as well as from Northwest Priority
Credit Union and American Income
Life Insurance Company.
The top individual fundraiser was
Cal Eddy, a retired Portland firefighter
and member of Local 43.
Rick Brandt of Machinists Lodge
1005 captured the men’s high series
trophy, and Megan Rivas of United
Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW) Local 555 took home
women’s high series hardware.
A low score trophy went to Lizzeth
Gongora of Northwest Priority Credit
Union.
Score totals were not available.
Union locals represented at the
MDA Bowl were National Association
of Letter Carriers Branches 82 and
1104; the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council; Fire Fighters Local 43; Ma-
chinists Lodges 63, 1005, and 1432;
UFCW Local 555; American Federa-
tion of State, County, Municipal Em-
ployees Local 2505; Roofers Local 49;
and Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco
Workers and Grain Millers Union Lo-
cal 114.
Appeals court tosses NLRB’s workers’ rights poster rule
tive attitude’ towards setting down
principles in rulemaking, rather than
adjudication,” he said.
The judges also slammed the
NLRB’s rule as too broad. “Although
section 8(c)” of the 1947 Taft Hartley
Act, which rewrote labor law, “pre-
cludes the board from finding non-co-
ercive employer speech to be an unfair
labor practice, or evidence of an unfair
labor practice, the board’s rule does
both,” Randolph’s ruling says.
The Republican-controlled 80th
Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act,
essentially gutting the National Labor
Relations Act, over Democratic Presi-
dent Harry S. Truman’s veto, in 1947.
But the judges went beyond the
NLRB’s specific rule in their decision.
“We are not faced with a regulation
forbidding employers from dissemi-
nating information someone else has
created,” they declared. “Instead, the
board’s rule requires employers to dis-
seminate such information, upon pain
of being held to have committed an un-
fair labor practice.
“That difference hardly ends the
matter. The right to disseminate an-
other’s speech necessarily includes the
right to decide not to disseminate it,”
the judges said. “First Amendment law
acknowledges this apparent truth: ‘All
speech inherently involves choices of
what to say and what to leave unsaid.’ ”
The ruling is the second major de-
feat in five months for the NLRB in the
D.C. court, often called the second-
most-powerful court in the nation, be-
cause it rules on the legality of agency
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — A
federal appeals court has struck down a
National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) rule requiring businesses to
display an 11-by-17-inch poster that
informs employees of their rights in the
workplace, including the right to form
a union. (See poster right.)
The NLRB finalized the regulation
in August 2011, with an effective date
of April 30, 2012. But implementation
was delayed by lawsuits filed by the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Associ-
ated Builders and Contractors, and
other business associations.
A federal district court in Washing-
ton, D.C., ruled that the NLRB had the
authority to require the workplace
poster, but struck some of its provi-
sions. However, a federal judge in
South Carolina ruled the NLRB did
not have the legal right to require the
workplace poster. That case is still un-
der appeal in the 4th Circuit.
On April 17, 2012, a three-judge
panel of the U. S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit (all of
them conservative judges appointed by
a Republican president) enjoined the
NLRB from enforcing the rule until it
issued a decision. It finally did so May
7, 2013, determining the poster vio-
lated employer free speech rights in
place since the Taft-Hartley Act.
Judge A. Raymond Randolph said
the NLRB should never have tried
writing the rule, much less proposing
it. “The board’s action departs from its
historic practice. From its inception in
1935, the board has exhibited a ‘nega-
MAY 17, 2013
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
decisions.
The prior loss was when the D.C.
Circuit ruled that President Barack
Obama’s 2012 recess appointments to
the NLRB — and the decisions they
voted on — are illegal. That leaves the
board without a quorum to act and
could bring it to a halt.
AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka called the rulings “radical.”
“Republican judges of the D.C. Cir-
cuit continue to wreak havoc on work-
ers’ rights. After attempting to render
the NLRB inoperable, the D.C. Circuit
once again undermined workers’
rights, this time by striking down a
common-sense rule requiring employ-
ers to inform workers of their rights
under federal labor law,” he said.
“In today’s workplace, employers
are required to display posters explain-
ing wage and hour rights, health and
safety and discrimination laws, even
emergency escape routes. The ruling
suggests courts should strike down
hundreds of notice requirements, not
only those that inform workers about
their rights and warn them of hazards,
but also those on cigarette packages, in
home mortgages and many other areas.
“The court’s twisted logic finds that
‘freedom of speech’ precludes the gov-
ernment from requiring employers to
provide certain information to employ-
ees. This is absurd. When workers
know their rights, the laws work as in-
tended,” Trumka said.
The NLRB is considering whether
to appeal it to the full D.C. Circuit
Court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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