NLRB overreach: Recess edition

Will Obama attempt to recess appoint two appointees to the radicalized National Labor Relations Board? Or will he at least have the US Senate vote on his two recent appointees to the panel.

From The Hill:

Unions are watching the White House this holiday season in hopes that President Obama will risk a political backlash to prevent a shutdown of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The NLRB will be left with two board members when the recess appointment of Craig Becker expires at the end of the congressional session. The Supreme Court has ruled that the NLRB needs at least three members to issue rulings and regulations.

With Senate Republicans unlikely to confirm new NLRB nominees, it appears that Obama will have to make recess appointments to keep the labor board up and running.

But bypassing Congress could carry a political cost for the president. Republicans argue the NLRB has become a proxy for the labor movement and could point to the recess appointments as evidence that Obama is taking cues from his union allies as he runs for reelection

Each of the upper chamber's 47 Republicans signed a letter to the president asking him not to make NLRB recess appointments.

Politico:

Business and labor are at war over the troubled National Labor Relations Board, a site of many such previous clashes but now the flashpoint for unprecedented contentiousness.

About 200 cases, many of which would expand the power of unions, will be stalled in 2012 when an appointment expires and the five-member board loses a quorum and with it the ability to take action – unless President Barack Obama makes a controversial recess appointment sometime in the coming weeks.

Two NLRB board members left a lump of coal for our economy--quickie elections. And Big Labor was a big supporter for Candidate Obama. He is repaying his debt.

From the Charleston Daily Mail:

He repaid the favor as president by appointing Mark Pearce, a labor lawyer, and Craig Becker, a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, to the National Labor Relations Board.

Becker's term ends this month, and that would leave the five-member board with only two members, one Republican and one Democratic appointee - and thus one person shy of the quorum needed to operate.

By a 2-1 vote, Becker and Pearce made a fundamental change in unionization elections.

Companies no longer will be able to challenge who votes in these elections before the election takes place. Brushing aside such concerns as who qualifies to vote as "unnecessary litigation," Becker and Pearce ruled that companies can sue only after elections.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace immediately sued to stop the NLRB rule from going into effect on April 30.

There is some good news from the Kansas City Star:

The National Labor Relations Board said it will postpone for three months a rule that requires employers to notify workers of their rights to form a union, allowing time for a legal challenge.

Canada Free Press:

A famous radio talk show host asked rhetorically why unions have supported and financed the Occupy Wall Street movement. The answer is quite simple. Occupiers are asking for communism. In communism, the entire labor force is unionized. It is in the best interest of unions to promote communism since union membership in this country is down to single digits and not likely to rebound.

Unions were necessary at the turn of the 20th century to protect workers from dangerous working conditions. Unions survive today as a political tool to influence elections and exert economic power.

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