Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach, reining-in edition

Thursday, July 21, 2011

NLRB overreach, reining-in edition

Congress wants to rein in the radicalized NLRB.

From AP:

South Carolina U.S. Rep. Tim Scott has introduced legislation in Congress to prevent the National Labor Relations Board from closing down plants or ordering companies to transfer employment.

Scott's measure comes in light of the NLRB suit against Boeing, which last month opened its $750 million assembly plant in North Charleston.

The NLRB complaint alleges the new plant was built in South Carolina so Boeing could avoid unionized labor in the Pacific Northwest.

Scott calls his bill the Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has endorsed Scott's proposal.

The Wall Street Journal:

The National Labor Relations Board’s hearings this week on proposed changes to rules governing union organizing elections offered a rare glimpse into the workings of an agency that hasn’t held a public hearing since the 1980s and recently has stirred up a fair amount of controversy.

For the most part, the board members sought to generate as little excitement as possible.

At the outset, Wilma Liebman, the Democratic chairman of the NLRB, sought to set a conciliatory tone. "We know that the proposals have generated some controversy … I assure you, we all have open minds," she said.

On the agenda were proposals to streamline union-organizing elections that add up to the most sweeping changes to the election rules since 1947. The measures would shorten the time between a union's filing to hold an election and the voting to as few as 10 days. Currently, the median time is 38 days.