Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach, new chairman edition

Monday, August 29, 2011

NLRB overreach, new chairman edition

The NLRB has a new chairman, Mark Gaston Pearce, but the overreach continues.

From Red State: NLRB Chairman, Ex-Teamster Attorney Liebman Departs Rogue Agency As Third Term Ends

The Washington Post:

House Republicans are planning votes for almost every week this fall in an effort to repeal environmental and labor requirements on business that they say have hampered job growth.

With everyone from President Obama to his Republican challengers in the 2012 campaign focusing on ways to spur economic growth, House Republicans will roll out plans Monday to fight regulations from the National Labor Relations Board, pollution rules handed down by the Environmental Protection Agency and regulations that affect health plans for small businesses. In addition, the lawmakers plan to urge a 20 percent tax deduction for small businesses.

"It is essential that the House continue our focus on the jobs crisis," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) wrote in a memo to be sent to GOP lawmakers Monday.

The push for a jobs agenda comes as Obama, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and others plan to present their own jobs agendas just after Labor Day.

Human Events:

The National Labor Relations Board, already under fire for overstepping its authority to serve as a labor union enforcer against Boeing, has decided to stretch the limits of that authority again.

Union bosses aren't happy with the Obama Administration – no less than the AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took time away from feeding Jedi to the monster in his basement to muse about forming a third party yesterday. Maybe their loyal servants at the NLRB can cheer them up.

The new NLRB rule requires employers to post notices informing employees of their collective bargaining and organizing rights. If the company has an "internet or intranet site," they must also post the notice electronically.

Who’s affected by this rule? Oh, just every private-sector company that employs more than 2 people, and is not involved in agriculture, railroads, or air travel. Even if they operate in right-to-work states, and employ absolutely no union labor. In other words, about six million employers. No big deal.

Writing for Townhall, Ken Blackwell and Clint Bolick:

The Obama Administration has fired its opening salvo against a cornerstone of democracy: the right to secret ballot.

Last fall, voters in four states voted overwhelmingly to amend their constitutions protect the right of workers to vote by secret ballot in deciding whether or not to form unions. That right has been enshrined in federal law for 75 years but is threatened by bills pending in Congress.

Nonetheless, the Obama National Labor Relations Board has filed a lawsuit against Arizona seeking to halt its protection of the right to secret ballot. Federal law governs labor relations, the NLRB asserts, and states cannot provide greater security for worker rights.

Why is the Obama Administration taking such a profoundly anti-democratic position? The answer is simple: it's pay-off time for the massive labor union support Barack Obama received in the 2008 election.