Emboldening Big Labor
By Matthew Vadum
Big Labor scored a significant victory Wednesday when the National Labor Relations Board gave preliminary approval to a rule that severely limits the ability of employers to fight unionization drives.
On a vote of 2-to-1, the NLRB, a socialist anachronism left over from the New Deal, agreed to move forward with the “microwave” rule, which would allow workers to create unions more quickly and provide employers less time to fight such moves in courts or otherwise. The rule zaps the rights of employers by slashing the period between when workers file to create a union and when they vote from 30 days to as few as 10 days.
It is worth noting that while states are rushing to endorse right-to-work laws that uphold employees’ rights, the NLRB is going in the opposite direction by favoring union bosses.
Unlike in statist Europe, unions in individualistic America have always had a hard time organizing. And so they should. That’s the American way.
But Obama’s toadies at the NLRB are hell-bent on making America more like bureaucratic, dysfunctional Europe where labor disruptions and union violence are everyday occurrences.
Left-wingers on the NLRB are helping the lawless Obama administration circumvent Congress because they know the microwave rule, which is arguably a backdoor form of “card check,” would never be approved by lawmakers.
“What the NLRB is doing is not the action of one rogue agency or a few envelope-pushing employees, so much as it is a deliberate strategy to use the federal government’s regulatory powers to achieve what Obama and his political supporters want without having to bother with going to Congress first,” writes columnist Peter Roff.
Labor bosses view the potential rule change as an opportunity to force more American workers into the union fold.
“Today’s vote is a step in the right direction toward giving more men and women a fair vote in the workplace to help rebalance our economy and rebuild the middle class,” said Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of American Rights at Work, a Big Labor advocacy group funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. “Cutting back on the excessive delays and litigation that plague the current system will be good for employers, employees and taxpayers who foot the bill.”
But the radicals of the modern American labor movement have no interest in helping workers or the so-called middle class.
These leftists talk a good game about democracy, but they don’t support it in the unionization process.
Desperate to boost the anemic ranks of union members in the private sector, they support the thuggish “card check” method. Currently workers vote in a federally supervised secret-ballot election, but under card check, if more than 50 percent of employees at a particular facility sign a card, the government certifies the union without a proper vote. Union goons would be free to intimidate workers into signing the cards, which is just fine by organized labor (and President Obama).
Labor leaders would be delighted if the NLRB would simply abolish secret ballots outright by administrative fiat. The NLRB is obliging them by doing so incrementally.
Of course NLRB’s resident labor fascist, Craig Becker, whose recess appointment from President Obama expires at the end of this year, voted in favor of the motion. Becker advocates a strange, authoritarian version of syndicalism in which no one would have the right not to join a union; individuals would only get to choose which union to join. Becker believes employers should have no role in the unionization process.
It is not yet clear when the NLRB will hold a vote on finalizing the rule.
On a vote of 2-to-1, the NLRB, a socialist anachronism left over from the New Deal, agreed to move forward with the “microwave” rule, which would allow workers to create unions more quickly and provide employers less time to fight such moves in courts or otherwise. The rule zaps the rights of employers by slashing the period between when workers file to create a union and when they vote from 30 days to as few as 10 days.
It is worth noting that while states are rushing to endorse right-to-work laws that uphold employees’ rights, the NLRB is going in the opposite direction by favoring union bosses.
Unlike in statist Europe, unions in individualistic America have always had a hard time organizing. And so they should. That’s the American way.
But Obama’s toadies at the NLRB are hell-bent on making America more like bureaucratic, dysfunctional Europe where labor disruptions and union violence are everyday occurrences.
Left-wingers on the NLRB are helping the lawless Obama administration circumvent Congress because they know the microwave rule, which is arguably a backdoor form of “card check,” would never be approved by lawmakers.
“What the NLRB is doing is not the action of one rogue agency or a few envelope-pushing employees, so much as it is a deliberate strategy to use the federal government’s regulatory powers to achieve what Obama and his political supporters want without having to bother with going to Congress first,” writes columnist Peter Roff.
Labor bosses view the potential rule change as an opportunity to force more American workers into the union fold.
“Today’s vote is a step in the right direction toward giving more men and women a fair vote in the workplace to help rebalance our economy and rebuild the middle class,” said Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of American Rights at Work, a Big Labor advocacy group funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. “Cutting back on the excessive delays and litigation that plague the current system will be good for employers, employees and taxpayers who foot the bill.”
But the radicals of the modern American labor movement have no interest in helping workers or the so-called middle class.
These leftists talk a good game about democracy, but they don’t support it in the unionization process.
Desperate to boost the anemic ranks of union members in the private sector, they support the thuggish “card check” method. Currently workers vote in a federally supervised secret-ballot election, but under card check, if more than 50 percent of employees at a particular facility sign a card, the government certifies the union without a proper vote. Union goons would be free to intimidate workers into signing the cards, which is just fine by organized labor (and President Obama).
Labor leaders would be delighted if the NLRB would simply abolish secret ballots outright by administrative fiat. The NLRB is obliging them by doing so incrementally.
Of course NLRB’s resident labor fascist, Craig Becker, whose recess appointment from President Obama expires at the end of this year, voted in favor of the motion. Becker advocates a strange, authoritarian version of syndicalism in which no one would have the right not to join a union; individuals would only get to choose which union to join. Becker believes employers should have no role in the unionization process.
It is not yet clear when the NLRB will hold a vote on finalizing the rule.
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