New Republican Bill Would Paralyze National Labor Relations Board
This week, Republican Senators introduced a bill they call the “The National Labor Relations Board Reform Act.” Its chances of passage are very slim, but that’s beside the point: The GOP wants to emphasize its displeasure with President Barack Obama’s appointments of labor-friendly board members who thwart businesses’ attempts to keep unions out of their workplaces.
The key feature of the bill would neuter the board (already too weak by many standards) by mandating that it be made up of three Republicans and three Democrats—a prescription apparently designed to ensure permanent partisan gridlock. It would also restrict the authority of the board’s chief prosecutor and cut the operating budget of the agency if cases weren’t decided in a timely manner. Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), remarks that the bill would mean “the NLRB just can’t do anything any more—and that’s exactly what they [Republicans] want.”
“This legislation will turn the National Labor Relations Board from an advocate to the umpire it ought to be,” stated Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), in introducing the bill jointly with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). “The board is too partisan, swinging from one side to the other with each new administration—and while this didn’t start with President Obama, it’s gotten worse as he's loaded the board with union insiders.”
Alexander’s statement came one week after the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on Obama’s nomination of Sharon Block to fill an upcoming vacancy on the NLRB. The hearing is apparently what prompted Sen. Alexander to introduce the bill. Republican members of the committee were polite to Block but openly hostile to her nomination.
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17179/republican_nlrb_reform_act_would_paralyze_labor_board
