Controversy surrounding actions coming out of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) intensified on September 22 when a congressional committee examined what the panel’s chairman called the agency’s “assault on American workers and job creators.”
The House Education and the Workforce Committee, chaired by Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican, titled the hearing “Culture of Union Favoritism: Recent Actions of the National Labor Relations Board.”
“Through three decisions handed down in one afternoon, the Board restricted workers’ right to a secret ballot election, undermined employers’ ability to maintain unity in the workplace, and created new barriers for those who wish to challenge union representation,” Kline said. “For anyone following the Obama Board, this barrage of activist decisions — however unacceptable — was not unexpected. But for workers and job creators struggling to move this country forward, it is an outrage.”
In response, NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce issued a statement saying that the Board “takes very seriously its obligation to enforce the law as enacted by Congress in a fair and evenhanded way. Since August of last year, the Board issued more than 400 decisions, finding for employer interests in some, labor union interests in others, and individual employee interests in still others.”
During the hearing, lawmakers examined NLRB decisions that many say make it more difficult for workers to exercise their right not to choose union representation. An employee at Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Keizer, Oregon, voiced her dissatisfaction with a card-check campaign at her workplace. Employee Barbara Ivey noted that one of the NLRB’s recent decisions revoked the “Dana” decision and therefore took away “one of the last guarantees workers have of a fair and honest vote in workplace elections.”
Kline wound up his remarks at the hearing by saying, “The NLRB’s assault on American workers and job creators is undermining our nation’s ability to grow and prosper. Congress cannot stand by and allow an unelected board to wreak havoc on our workforce. We must stand up and do the job we were sent here to do.”
NLRB Chairman Pearce’s statement took issue with Kline’s view. “In its hearing today, the Committee chose to focus on three decisions issued in late August. Two of them reversed previous Board rulings that were themselves highly controversial when they were issued. The third clarified a confusing standard, allowing a group of certified nursing assistants at a nursing home in Alabama to exercise their choice on union representation through a secret ballot election. Finally, the Board issued a rule which requires employers under the jurisdiction of the NLRB to post a notice of employee rights under our law, including the right to refrain from union activity, available for free download from our website. To my mind, these actions represent pursuit of the mission that Congress gave this agency – to protect worker free choice, promote collective bargaining and preserve labor peace.”
The House committee hearing followed other House action critical of the NLRB. On September 14, the House approved the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act (H.R. 2587), which aims to prevent the NLRB “from dictating where a private business can create jobs.”
The bill was a response to action taken by the NLRB against aerospace giant Boeing Co.’s decision to locate a major production line in right-to-work South Carolina instead of in the company’s unionized plant in Washington. Union supporters claimed the company’s decision was in retaliation for previous work stoppages at the Washington operation.
In addition to the August NLRB decisions and the controversy over the Boeing plant, the Board has come under fire for a new rule requiring employers to display a new poster on worker rights and an effort to shorten the time between a union’s filing of an election petition and the election.
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