Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach: Quickie edition

Monday, November 28, 2011

NLRB overreach: Quickie edition

Boeing HQ, Chicago

The Democrats on the radicalized NLRB want to foist "quickie" elections upon our fragile economy. Two Republicans, Rep. John Kline (R-MN) and Brian Hayes, are working to protect the job creators.

Later, we turn to good old-fashioned Illinois graft.

From the Corpus Christi Caller Times:

The White House's misguided regulatory approach is best exhibited by the actions of its National Labor Relations Board. This little-known and supposedly "independent" administrative agency has certainly made a name for itself in the last few years. It has made decision after decision rewarding union bosses at the expense of workers and businesses. As job creators warn of the uncertainty in the marketplace due to government meddling and restrictions, the NLRB has set the standard for delivering job-killing mandates.

This is the same agency run by labor-picked recess-appointed bureaucrats who eluded Senate confirmation and have decided at the behest of union bosses to launch an official complaint against the Boeing Company for opening a production facility in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.

But now, it appears Congress has seen enough and they are ready to act and rein in this rogue agency, which seems intent on single-handedly putting more Americans out of work.

The Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, introduced by Congressman John Kline from Minnesota and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Francisco Canseco of Texas, is now before the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation would reverse two harmful decisions that the NLRB is considering or has already passed.

The Las Vegas Review Journal:

Under current law, workers have a right to hold an organizing election within 45-60 days after a union has gathered enough petition signatures.

But while organized labor and their Democratic allies in Congress have so far failed to eliminate such secret ballot elections altogether in favor of a simple, more manipulable "card-check" system, they now seek the next best thing: quicker elections.

The purpose for all this "reform"? To rig the process in favor of Big Labor.

If the unions have so far failed to get rid of the ballot, they now hope to encourage so-called "ambush elections" making it harder for companies to present their side of the issue prior to a vote.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Democrats who have made the National Labor Relations Board a rubber stamp for Big Labor shouldn't be surprised if Brian Hayes, the NLRB's lone GOP member, makes good on his threat to block this week's hurry-up attempt to implement union-friendly "snap elections" in workplaces by resigning.

His resignation (or a boycott) would deny the three-member NLRB a quorum. And without a quorum, the two-Democrat NLRB majority couldn't hold the vote they've set for Wednesday on a final rule that would cut the wait before a union representation election -- now five to six weeks -- to 14 days at most.

The majority Dems have frozen Mr. Hayes, who'd surely vote against the proposal, out of deliberations on it. They want to hurry the vote because Democrat member Craig Becker's recess appointment expires at year's end.

Labor Union Report: "It's time to close the NLRB for renovations," unions cry "foul" when the game is played using their own playbook?

Warner Todd Huston's Prairie State Report: Union boss gets free state money for kid's college tuition

Illinois Review: Legislative scholarships flowed to top union lobbyist's kids

Here's a radio ad about the Kline bill, from the Workforce Fairness Institute:

From Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC):

The hypocrisy and blind advocacy has to stop. The purpose of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is to balance the rights of the employers, the employees and the general public. The NLRA is not calculated to drive up union membership because they are a loyal constituency for the Democrat Party. Because the NLRB – through its filing and proposed rules and regulations – has lost all pretense of objectivity in labor issues, fair, evenhanded pieces of legislation such as Chairman Kline's Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act are necessary.

And finally, the Washington Examiner returns to the Boeing story.

What if there were emails showing Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor coordinating with Attorney General Eric Holder and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on how the Obama administration should fight judicial challenges to Obamacare?

At a bare minimum, Justice Sotomayor would have to recuse herself from the case, she might be impeached, and Holder would face serious ethics questions as well. But such emails do not exist ... concerning Obamacare.

When it comes to the National Labor Relations Board suit against Boeing, that is a different story.

Cause of Action, a conservative government accountability nonprofit, has obtained emails through a Freedom of Information Act request showing then-NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman, NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon and NLRB Public Affairs Director Nancy Cleeland coordinating the board's response to its own decision to sue Boeing for opening a factory in the right to work state of South Carolina.

But, since the NLRB is an independent agency, shouldn't they be allowed to coordinate about ongoing litigation? Yes and no. The NLRB is supposed to be an independent agency, capable of creating rules, enforcing them and adjudicating them.