Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach "How convenient" edition

Thursday, June 02, 2011

NLRB overreach "How convenient" edition

How convenient!

More NLRB overreach stories.

Brett McMahon in Townhall:

When reading the news lately about the Obama administration's control over its supposedly independent labor board, you can almost hear Dana Carvey's SNL character, The Church Lady, preparing her famous line "How convenient!"

Here's the deal: The Obama administration has been trying to have it both ways, enabling an obscure but powerful agency to slash away at business while simultaneously claiming to have no control of the situation. Stop me if this sounds familiar, but the White House essentially wants to help its political allies yet avoid being held accountable by legislators and voters.

As some know all too well, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been hard at work eroding private ballot rights for workers choosing whether to join a union, stripping the ability of employers to speak to their staff about the potential costs of joining a union, and eroding employers' private property rights.

As part of its defense of the Board's ongoing onslaught against the American way, the Obama administration and its allies in the legislature have claimed that the Board is an independent agency. To attempt to influence their behavior, the theory goes, would jeopardize the pristine independence of the august body.

The Charleston Post and Courier writes about the brief meeting between President Obama and US Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC):

Scott was among dozens of Republican congressional leaders who met with Obama to discuss the nation's debt ceiling and efforts to revive its economy.

Jim Albaugh, executive vice president of The Boeing Company and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, listens as first term congressman Tim Scott praised Boeing workers in April at an announcement of the company's plans to install photovoltaic panels on the roof of its huge 787 Dreamliner assembly plant being built in North Charleston.

As their meeting broke up, Scott got a chance for a brief exchange with the president.

"I suggested to him that if he's interested in growing our fragile economy, one of the first things we do to get that accomplished is to get the NLRB out of the way of the private sector and not to meddle in right-to-work states like South Carolina," Scott said.

"His response was ultimately this has become a legal issue, and ultimately, it's challenging for him to weigh in," Scott said.

How convenient!

But this story from Bloomberg, at least for the president, is not so convenient:

President Barack Obama faces waning enthusiasm from union members as he prepares for his 2012 re-election bid, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

"It will be more challenging this time than it was last time to motivate our members," Trumka, 61, said in an interview today at Bloomberg's offices in Washington.

Trumka, head of the largest U.S. labor organization, said union members are frustrated by "wasted energy" in Washington on issues that he said don't help workers: "hysteria" about the federal deficit, a White House review of regulations and Obama's support for free-trade agreements.