Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach: Red tape factory edition

Monday, September 19, 2011

NLRB overreach: Red tape factory edition

The author with Roskam

The weekend is over but the overreach marches on.

From USA Today:

The Republicans devoted their Saturday radio address to a favored target: Excessive federal business regulations that they say are stifling businesses and killing jobs.

"Washington has become a red tape factory, with more than 4,000 rules in the pipeline, hundreds of which would cost our economy more than $100 million each annually," said Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill.

Roskam cited examples of over-regulation that have affected companies ranging from Boeing airplanes to Gibson guitars.

From Fitsnews:

The anti-free market jihad that's being waged by U.S. President Barack Obama's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Boeing isn't sitting well with the American public.

According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, 64 percent of Americans believe that the aircraft manufacturer should be permitted to locate its second Dreamliner assembly plant in South Carolina. Less than a third of that number – 21 percent – disagree.

Not only that, a majority of unionized workers – 59 percent – believe that Boeing has a right to locate its new facility in South Carolina.

"Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly side with Boeing on the issue while Democrats are more evenly divided," the pollsters found.

From Rasmussen Reports:

Half of American Adults (48%) think labor unions have outlasted their usefulness, but there's a sharp difference of opinion between Republicans and Democrats on the question.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% disagree and say that unions have not outlived their role. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

These findings are consistent with attitudes found two years ago. At that time, 45% said labor unions actually make America weaker, while 26% believed they make the country stronger and 13% said they have no impact.

Yet while 68% of Republicans and 54% of adults not affiliated with either of the major political parties believe unions have outlived their usefulness, 52% of Democrats still see a need for them.

The Washington Examiner:

President Obama has been at pains to convince voters that he cares about jobs. It seems to be a hard sell.

But he certainly can demonstrate that he cares about certain jobs -- the 7 percent of private-sector jobs and 36 percent of public-sector jobs held by union members.

During his two years and nine months as president, he has worked time and again to increase the number of unionized jobs. As for nonunion jobs, who wants them?

Some pro-union moves have a certain ritual quality. Democratic presidents on taking office seek to strengthen federal employee unions, just as Republican presidents on taking office seek to weaken them.

From AP:

A new federal regulation requiring businesses to tell workers they have a right to join unions and discuss working conditions is facing a new legal challenge from a national small business group.

The National Federation of Independent Business said Friday it sued the National Labor Relations Board in a federal court in Washington, D.C., over the regulation that goes into effect in November. Its challenge will join others, including one from the National Association of Manufacturers.

Karen Harned, executive director of the federation's small business legal center, said the NLRB doesn't have the authority to require the 11-inch by 17-inch posters or to tell employers what they need to say to their workers.

"They're telling us what to say in regard to unions in a way that we don't think is necessarily neutral as to whether or not you should join unions," Harned said.

Via the Wauwatosa Patch, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI):

But decisions like this one from NLRB are having the opposite effect. As reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, the National Association of Manufacturers asked its members last month how the NRLB decision against affects their decision-making and 49 percent responded that capital expenditure plans "have been or may be impacted by the NLRB's complaint."

When 14 million Americans are still out work, Congress must balance the need to protect workers with the urgency to enact policies that will encourage job growth. Employers are deliberately choosing to sit on their capital, rather than invest and hire new employers, for fear of the impact of government regulations.

Larry Kudlow in National Review Online:

Thank heavens the House Republicans just passed a bill — the "Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act" — that would stop the National Labor Relations Board from telling any company where it can or cannot operate in the United States.

Finally, a pro-business signal from Washington. This one inspired by Boeing’s attempt to operate their $750 million South Carolina plant to produce the 787 Dreamliner with at least one thousand workers. The NLRB has alleged that Boeing is retaliating against union workers in the state of Washington by operating a non-union in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.

This is nonsense.

Boeing is actually adding union jobs in Washington State. And if you keep them out of South Carolina, their next stop probably will be China.

Is that what we want?