Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach: Utah senators edition

Monday, January 30, 2012

NLRB overreach: Utah senators edition

I've reported on the Employee Rights Act before. Here is some more information on this bill.

From the Washington Times:

In an effort to loosen labor's grip on workers, two GOP lawmakers want legislation that would require workers to re-affirm the existence of their unions with new votes every three years.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina are pushing the Employee Rights Act that also would place limits on strikes, how fast a union can organize and how membership fees may be used to support political candidates. The bill has yet to receive a committee hearing in either chamber.

"It's neither anti-union, nor pro-employer," Mr. Hatch told The Washington Times. "It's pro-worker."

The move comes as unions are showing new signs of a turnaround in growth. The number of members spiked by about 50,000 workers to nearly 14.8 million in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That follows two years of declining membership, during which unions lost nearly 1.4 million workers.

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports on Utah's other senator.

President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to rip Congress for blocking his nominees, focusing his ire on Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Earlier in the week, Lee vowed to oppose all of the president's picks for open judicial and federal positions to protest the way Obama skirted the Senate to fill key jobs at the National Labor Relations Board and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Lee responds. From The Hill:

"Sadly, the President has sought to make this a partisan issue; but the Constitution is not partisan. The Constitution does not allow any president, Republican or Democrat, to circumvent the Senate in making appointments, and I will resist, just as vigorously, members of my own party who would attempt to do the same thing," Lee said in a statement.

The bar is open.

Zion National Park, Utah

SHOT:

Number Of Unionized Workers In U.S. Grows

CHASER:

The State Of Union Paybacks

Let's have another:

SHOT:

Top Dem Miller Wants DOJ Probe Of GOP NLRB Member

CHASER:

Watchdog Says GOP Member Of Labor Board Wasn't Enticed To Resign

More from The Hill:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that the courts will have to resolve President Obama's recent recess appointments and blamed the White House for the confrontation with lawmakers.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," McConnell said the president's recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) earlier this month was part of Obama's reelection strategy.

"We all know the president wants to pick a fight with Congress," McConnell said.

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

The senator said the president cannot decide when the Senate is in session or in recess. He noted that there was litigation against the recess appointments at the NLRB and that he understood that there would be litigation forthcoming against the consumer bureau as well.

Would you believe that right-to-work is being debated in suburban Detroit? It is.

Detroit News:

Candidates were asked for their position on the right-to-work issue. [Gary} Glenn said he supported national right-to-work laws as a way to get Americans out of "burdensome work situations" and "bring jobs back to America."

[Pete] Hoekstra said he supports states handling right-to-work adding that reform is at the state level.

The Indiana House this week approved right-to-work legislation and the state Senate is scheduled to begin hearings on the bill Monday. On Saturday, a mix of union members and Occupy protesters from across Indiana marched through Super Bowl Village in Indianapolis in opposition to the state's proposed right-to-work legislation.