NLRB GETS A NEEDED FACELIFT

The NLRB has two new appointments
thanks to a renewed sense of

purpose from President Obama

Washington, D.C.--  The National Labor Relations Board will soon have three Democrats and one Republican, and anti-worker foes can do nothing about it but brace for a wave of pro-union rulings.

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. The statute guarantees the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers, and to engage in other protected concerted activity with or without a union, or to refrain from all such activity.

On March 25, all 41 Republican senators urged President Obama not to name a lawyer for the A.F.L.-C.I.O and the Service Employees International Union to the National Labor Relations Board during the Easter recess.

Last month, the Democrats fell eight votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a threatened filibuster of a vote for the lawyer, Craig Becker. Two Democrats, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joined Republicans in the 52-to-33 vote. In a letter to Mr. Obama, Republican senators said that because of his union work, Mr. Becker “could not be viewed as impartial, unbiased or objective” in labor board cases. Seven of the 10 members named by President George W. Bush were recess appointees.

Chambers of Commerce and business groups are totally freaking out.  They are warning that the panel will kick quickly into a pro-union gear after 26 months of near paralysis, when just two of its five seats were filled.  I'm sure the word "armageddon" and the phrase "end is near" will no doubt purse the lips of some fanatical Republican Senators in the days to come.

“Becker will bring a very strong, pro-union, anti-employer animus to decision-making at the board,” said Randel K. Johnson, an executive of the United States Chamber of Commerce. “Our view is he will resolve things almost invariably in favor of unions.”  And that's a bad thing?

Business organizations also worry that the board will revamp the rules for unionization elections by engaging more than ever before in broad rule-making while relying less on case-by-case decision-making.

Labor unions argue that the recess appointments of Mr. Becker and Mark Pearce, a Buffalo-based lawyer, will merely restore some balance after the board favored business under President George W. Bush for eight long years.  It's about freakin' time.