Marathon Pundit: NLRB news: Boeing and a Chicago Catholic college

Friday, June 03, 2011

NLRB news: Boeing and a Chicago Catholic college

There are just three NLRB overeach stories to post today.

The first comes from Chicago's Southwest Side.

From Inside Higher Education:

The conflict between some Roman Catholic colleges and adjunct professors seeking collective bargaining rights is intensifying.

Last week, the Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that adjuncts at St. Xavier University were entitled to vote on a union, and that the university lacked enough of a religious character to be exempt from provisions of federal labor law.

The ruling is the second this year in which an NLRB regional office has rejected the claims of Roman Catholic colleges that they can prevent adjunct unions. In both the dispute at St. Xavier and one at Manhattan College, officials of the NLRB reviewed the ties of Catholic orders to the colleges and found that the institutions were largely secular.

Both union organizers and Catholic colleges say that with a second ruling, the stakes are growing -- given that there are many Catholic colleges with adjunct instructors, but without unions.

Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest unemployment numbers and the number of jobless is up.

From the Seattle Times:

Three employees at Boeing Co.'s North Charleston plant want roles in a lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board

Meredith Going Sr., Dennis Murray and Cynthia Ramaker say in a motion filed Wednesday that they are sure to lose their jobs if the federal agency is successful in its suit against Boeing and the plant shuts down.

Writing in Politico, Rep. Joe Wilson and Rep. Trey Gowdy, both are South Carolina Republicans:

Despite congressional intent and clear Supreme Court jurisprudence, union leadership and unelected NLRB attorneys are now seeking to become managing partners in the business affairs of American companies. South Carolina is confident Boeing will be vindicated in a court of law. However, the NLRB's jurisdictional overreach, coupled with its brazen activism, threatens the future allocation of work by American companies. Worst of all, it comes at a time when we should be doing everything in our power to stem the tide of American jobs being funneled overseas.

At a time when union membership is at a historic low, unions and their taxpayer-subsidized counsel seek to influence this administration in historically high fashion. This nation needs to come together and face the great challenges of our time. However, many in this administration are seeking to benefit from the politics of class, generational and, now, regional conflict. And then there are those of us protecting the very free-market principles and right-to-work laws that have sustained America's competitiveness since our country’s founding.