NLRB overreach, power outage edition

Brother, can you spare some power?

My electricity is still out at home, but thank God for Starbucks and wi-fi.

They can shut off my power, but they can't shut me down.

The NLRB overreach continues.

From Bloomberg:

A U.S. House committee said it may subpoena the National Labor Relations Board for documents related to a complaint filed against Boeing Co. (BA) for building a non-union aircraft factory in South Carolina.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, set July 26 for the board to deliver information requested on May 12, or face a possible subpoena, according to a letter obtained today. The board provided some documents and classified some memorandums as confidential, according to the letter.

"Your responses are incomplete," Issa said in the letter to Lafe Solomon, the acting general counsel at the NLRB.

Republican lawmakers are challenging the agency on the Boeing case, which was filed on April 20 in response to a complaint from the International Association of Machinists. Solomon said Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, opened the plant for the 787 Dreamliner in retaliation for strikes in Washington state that interrupted production. It's against the law for employers to punish workers for joining unions or striking.

Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star:

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., calls it "one of the worst examples of unelected bureaucrats doing the bidding of special interest groups that I've ever seen." He's talking about the National Labor Relations Board's cozy relationship with Big Labor.

By law, the NLRB must have two members from each of the two major parties. President Obama's nomination for the swing vote, Craig Becker (associate general counsel of the Service Employees International Union), failed Senate confirmation, but he's serving anyway, thanks to an Easter recess appointment by the president. Predictably, the 3-2 Democratic majority is pushing the union agenda. For example, the board is suing Boeing for locating a new manufacturing facility in a right-to-work state, South Carolina. The suit has implications for Virginia's own strong right-to-work laws.

Now comes another manifestation: Remember card check? That's the pro-union maneuver that would allow organizers to collect signed ballots from employees on whether to unionize, rather than conducting a secret-ballot election. Card check was so unpopular that Democrats could not get it through Congress when they controlled both houses. But now, the NLRB is poised to impose card check by regulation, or "rulemaking" as it's called at the board.

The new rules would require employers to hand over employee contact information (phone number, email, shift schedule) so organizers could contact workers at home. Once half the workers sign, employers would have to recognize the union.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Any 2012 GOP presidential candidate who doesn't heed fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's call to make a major campaign issue of the National Labor Relations Board's attempt to prevent the opening of Boeing Co.'s new $1 billion plant in his home state of South Carolina shouldn't be running in the first place.

Trying to punish Boeing for supposedly retaliating against union strikes elsewhere by locating the new plant in right-to-work South Carolina, the Democrat-dominated NLRB threatens all companies' freedom to invest as they see fit. Talk about restraint of free commerce.

Republicans who "don't see this as government overreach ... (and) payback politics at its worst ... shouldn't be leading our party," Sen. Graham told the Washington Times. "And I think most people are with us here."

Daily Caller:

Senate Republicans ripped into the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for ignoring a new executive order from President Barack Obama regarding "quickie" union elections.

Obama's most recent executive order asked all federal agencies, including independent ones like the NLRB, to refrain from making quick decisions without much public input.

The new "quickie" election rules the NLRB just finalized make it easier for labor unions to organize. They allow unions to request a unionizing election date mere days after initiating an organization effort.

Because unions got their way, many working men and women who are subjected to the NLRB’s new rules may not get all the facts before voting in favor of, or against, unionization.

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