Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach: Ying and yang edition

Thursday, December 01, 2011

NLRB overreach: Ying and yang edition

Occupy Chicago

First the ying.

From Reuters:

Democratic members of a divided U.S. labor board succeeded on Wednesday in advancing a politically charged proposal that could make it easier for unions to organize.

However, the ultimate outcome of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) measure is overshadowed by partisan divisions dogging the panel and potential congressional intervention.

On a 2-to-1 vote, the short-handed board agreed to a resolution that would amend NLRB rules by limiting litigation in disputed elections, including curbs on certain appeals, and streamlining other procedures to reduce delays.

It now must be drafted into a final document and voted on again.

The Washington Times brings us the yang:

The House on Wednesday approved a bill designed to rein in the National Labor Relations Board in what GOP critics of the board said was an effort to stop the "rogue" agency from rewriting federal labor law to increase the ability of unions to organize a work site.

More...

The Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, introduced in October by Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, Minnesota Republican, would shoot down the NLRB resolution, requiring a minimum of 35 days before a vote can be taken.

After defeating a string of Democratic amendments designed to weaken the measure, the House voted 235-188 Wednesday evening to approve the bill. Eight Republicans voted against the bill, while six Democrats supported it.

"Imagine voting on the president of the United States in 10 days," said Rep. David P. Roe, a Tennessee Republican, during Wednesday’s floor debate.

Boeing and its union ended a side-skirmish. From the Washington Examiner:

It's worth remembering what happened in this case. The union, in the midst of a labor dispute, complained to the NLRB that Boeing was building a non-union factory in the right to work state of South Carolina to service a backlog of orders on its 787 Dreamliner airplanes. And the NLRB's general counsel, Lafe Solomon, responded by suing Boeing and demanding that they move work from the newly constructed $750 million South Carolina facility to the unionized Washington state. The suit was completely frivolous and unlikely to ultimately prevail. However, businesses, especially those that are publicly traded, hate uncertainty. So they decided to reach a settlement with the union. To be clear, nothing is a done deal, and there's no guarantee that NLRB will now drop its suit, but Solomon did call the agreement a "a very significant and hopeful development."

Though Boeing did not agree to shut down its South Carolina facility, the company did agree to build its 737 MAX passenger jets in unionized Washington state, though they had been considering building them elsewhere. In addition, the Machinists report the tentative deal includes:

Annual wage increases of 2 percent, plus cost-of-living adjustments;

An incentive program intended to pay bonuses between 2 and 4 percent;

A ratification bonus of $5,000 for each member;

Increases to the formula for calculating pensions in each year of the pact; and

Guarantees that new hires would continue to receive traditional pensions.

In other words, the Machinists were able to extract a lot of concessions from Boeing that they otherwise might not have gotten, because the Obama administration's NLRB filed a frivolous lawsuit on their behalf.

Hot Air: DNC may have to respect N.C. right to work for convention

Big Labor Bailout: North Carolina tells DNC: "Respect North Carolina's right-to-work status!"

Say Anything: Obama's labor secretary: If we don't extend unemployment entitlements more people will be unemployed

And finally, from the Chicago Tribune:

Lawmakers, however, had self-preservation in mind. They're all preparing to run in newly drawn districts starting with the March 20 primary election, and there was little appetite to take a tough vote to downsize the pension benefits of politically active union workers before then.

The vote to reform union leader pension abuses proved more palatable. Lawmakers can go home for the holidays and tout their support for a crackdown on high-profile pension sweeteners for leaders of organized labor, which have been under assault across the country as money is scarce.

And so it was Tuesday that the House voted 108-4 to send the pension abuse measure to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who indicated he'll sign it into law.