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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2017)
PAGE 10 | October 6, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...U.S. Senate confirms Trump nominees to the NLRB From Page 1 prosecute allegations that em- ployers or unions have commit- ted “unfair labor practices.” The other part of the agency is the five-member Board itself, which functions like a Supreme Court of labor law cases, issu- ing rulings that interpret the Na- tional Labor Relations Act. Un- der the Act, the president may appoint up to three members from his party to this Board. In practice, that has meant in re- cent years that the Board has toggled between pro-labor ma- jorities under Democratic pres- idents and pro-business majori- ties under Republicans. The National Labor Rela- tions Act was never a strong law to begin with. Remedies for unfair labor practice violations are minimal, and the process for prosecuting them is slow. But for the last eight years, the NLRB has worked hard to modernize, and to fulfill the law’s stated purpose, which is to encourage collective bargaining. It’s likely many NLRB deci- sions that favored workers and “Mr. Emanuel has every right to spend his career representing corporations. But a guy who has never even once represented workers should not serve on the NLRB. An individual who has spent his career working with some of the most ruthless union bust- ing firms, fighting off union efforts at every turn, has ab- solutely no business at the helm of an agency whose job is to encourage collective bargaining.” — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) before the Sept. 25 confirmation vote unions will now be overturned, given the background of the new Trump-appointed majority. Emanuel was an attorney for Littler Mendelson, one of the nation’s top antiunion law firms. And as an attorney for a Re- publican House Committee, Kaplan drafted legislation to overturn Obama-era NLRB rul- ings and make it easier for em- ployers to fight unionization campaigns. Before that, in the George W. Bush-era Depart- ment of Labor, he drafted newly onerous union “LM-2” report- Turn to Page 11 U.S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685. 1. Publication Title: Northwest Labor Press. 2. Publication No.: ISSN 0894-444X. 3. Filing Date: Sept. 26, 2017. 4. Issue Frequency: Semi-monthly basis on first and third Fridays of each month. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 24. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $14. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 97213. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Offices of Publisher: 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 97213. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor. Publisher: Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co., Inc., 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Multnomah, Ore- gon 97213. Editor: Michael Gutwig, 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 97213. Managing Editor: Michael Gutwig, 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 97213. 10. Owner: Oregon Labor Press Publishing Company, Inc., (a non-profit corporation) 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 97213. Shareholders owning or holding one percent or more of the total amount of shares are: Musicians Mutual Associ- ation No. 99 (Bruce Fife, trustee); IBEW Local 125 (Travis Eri, trustee); Oregon AFL-CIO (Tom Chamberlain, trustee); United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 (Jeff Anderson, vice president); Northwest Oregon Labor Council (Bob Tackett, treasurer); Label Trades Section, Northwest Oregon Labor Council (Bob Tackett); Oregon School Employees Association (Everice Moro, recording secretary); Iron Workers Local 29 (Joe Bowers, trustee); Iron Workers Shopmen’s Local 516 (Phillip Casciato trustee); Machinists District W 24 (Bob Petroff, chair); Machin- ists Lodge 63 (John Hall, trustee); United Association Local 290 (Al Shropshire, trustee); Sheet Metal Workers Lo- cal 16 (Charlie Johnson, trustee); IBEW Local 48 (Ed Barnes, vice president); Office & Professional Employees Local 11 (Maureen Colvert, trustee); Communications Workers Local 7901 (Jeanette Turner, trustee); Auto Me- chanics Lodge 1005 (Chris Taylor, trustee); Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council, (Willy My- ers, trustee); Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council (Tim Frew, trustee). 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: None. 12. Tax Status (For completion by non-profit organizations authorized to mail at non-profit rates): The purpose, function, and non-profit status of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax pur- poses has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: Northwest Labor Press 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: Sept. 15, 2017 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation Date Average No. Copies Each Issue During Actual No. Copies of Single Issue Published Preceding 12 Months A. Total No. Copies (net press run) .............................................................. 51,577 B. Paid Circulation (by mail and outside the mail): 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 ......50,280 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales........ 417 C. Total Paid Distribution (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3) and (4)..............................50,697 D. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution.......................................................................... 1. Outside-county copies included on PS form 3541 ...........................................0 2. In-county copies included on PS Form 3541 ...................................................0 3. Mailed at other classes through the USPS ......................................................0 4. Outside the mail (carriers and other means)................................................125 E. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution ..........................................................125 F. Total Distribution ......................................................................................50,822 G. Copies not Distributed...................................................................................755 H. TOTAL.....................................................................................................51,577 I. Percent Paid 99.75% 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership..................................................Oct. 6, 2017 17. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete: Michael Gutwig, Editor Nearest to Filing 35,113 34,497 216 34,713 0 0 0 125 125 34,838 275 35,113 99.64% Five pro-worker NLRB reforms that are now threatened by Trump appointees ■ No more legal delays to union elections It’s already a stacked deck: Employers can require workers to attend anti-union meetings, while excluding union organizers from the property. Under those conditions, delaying a union election gives employers more time to bust a union campaign. So employers used legal technicalities to delay elections. Then in 2015 the NLRB decided it would hold the elections first, and resolve employer legal challenges later. Business groups howled in protest at what they called the “ambush election” rule. It used to take 40-45 days to schedule a union election. Now it takes an average of 25 days. ■ Joint employers are still employers Employers sometimes try to get out of the obligation to bargain with a union by dividing control between two entities, like a company and an outside staffing agency. But in 2015, the NLRB made it clearer that when two or more businesses share control over a worker’s terms of employment, they’re “joint employers” and still must deal with the union. ■ Grad students can be workers too Colleges increasingly rely on low- paid grad students for teaching and research, while saying they’re students, not employees. But in 2016 the NLRB said they can indeed by employees, and therefore have the right to unionize. ■ No more employee handbooks that deny workers rights Even nonunion workers have rights under the NLRA, such as the right to talk with coworkers about conditions, and to take collective action. To protect those rights, the NLRB has been cracking down on employers for employee handbooks that say workers can’t tell coworkers how much they’re paid, or that ask workers to give up their right to class action suits. ■ Email and Facebook are the new water cooler If workers have the right to talk with each other about pay and conditions, that means they can talk about them on email or Facebook too, the NLRB has ruled. So employer rules barring those things are illegal.
