Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach: Black Friday edition

Friday, November 25, 2011

NLRB overreach: Black Friday edition

Occupy Chicago, November 17

Black is being used here because it is often used in literature as a metaphor for dark and gloomy.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The descent of the National Labor Relations Board from independent referee to a wholly owned AFL-CIO subsidiary is speeding up. Now its two Democratic appointees are attempting to ram through a new rule requiring quickie organizing elections, with barely any notice and little consultation with its sole GOP member.

Once a sleepy, ostensibly independent agency, the NLRB has become the point of the spear for Democratic labor policy since Republicans took the House last year. Earlier this year its general counsel sued to block Boeing from making its planes at a new plant in South Carolina, a case that is still proceeding and could kill thousands of jobs.

Now Chairman Mark Pearce, an Obama appointee, says he'll hold a vote next Wednesday on rules to shorten the time frame for union elections. The fire drill is intended to approve the union-favored plan before the recess appointment of the board's other Democrat expires and they lose their quorum.

President Obama gave longtime union lawyer Craig Becker a recess appointment in March 2010 after even Senate Democrats considered him too radical to confirm, but that appointment expires at the end of the year. The Obama appointees need at least two of the NLRB's three occupied seats (two are vacant) to approve new rules.

The Tennessean:

But a new bill, the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., strikes back against some of the job-killing decisions by the NLRB. It would block the NLRB decision to shorten the time allowed for workers to decide whether to unionize. Currently, union elections last about 38 days in order for workers to learn both sides of the issue before making a decision. The NLRB believes that 10 days is quite enough. This short window would give union bosses all the time they need to rig an election, and then spring the actual vote on workers and employers with little warning.

Kline's bill also would block a regulation that permits the creation of "micro-units." This allows small numbers of employees to unionize based on their function in the workplace. Big Labor and their NLRB allies support "micro-units" because they give union bosses back-door entry into a business and a foothold in future negotiations.

NLRB rules may be smart politics, for those reliant on union donations and support to see them through the next election, but they are bad business for Tennesseans and all Americans. We’ve fought hard to keep our state business-friendly and fair when it comes to the formation of labor laws. Now, when we need jobs most and our economy is suffering, bureaucrats would subvert the will of the people and their representatives.

If Tennessee wants to make it out of this recession, we need bills like the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act that keep the country open for business.

The Washington Times:

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) will stage a December protest at the Capitol in conjunction with occupiers. The protest's stated goal, according to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry: to intimidate Republicans into backing the president’s economic agenda.

The Occupy protests, in other words, will be co-opted by a pair of unions looking to leverage populist anger in their push for a generic left-wing agenda - more "stimulus" spending, higher taxes, no entitlement reform and an ever-increasing national debt.

Occupiers nationwide initially touted their nonpartisan credentials. Occupy Congress, as the forthcoming protest is to be titled, should put that claim to rest.

Likewise, collaboration with some of the nation's largest labor unions undercuts protesters' incessant claims that their chief grievance is special interests’ undue influence on the political process. Indeed, the SEIU is the fifth-largest political contributor of any third-party group since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, having doled out more than $37 million to political candidates, parties and organizations. Five of the top 10 groups in terms of political contributions are unions.