NLRB Pushing Big Labor Bosses’ Agenda to Destroy J-O-B-S

August 11, 2011

Obama-Backed Bureaucrat Board is Doing the Big Labor Bosses’ Dirty Work for Them

Last week, President Obama held a closed-door meeting with a group of Big Labor bosses. Unsurprisingly, officials from both the White House and various unions refused to divulge details of what was discussed.
It’s not hard to imagine what was discussed. Democrats and the Obama administration are doing the bidding of Big Labor bosses on a number of issues. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), stacked with Obama appointees, has emerged as a favorite tool of the administration in its fight against Boeing’s decision to locate a 1,000 worker factory in South Carolina and in a new initiative that makes “sweeping changes” to unionization rules.
Even Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric and the chairman of Obama’s “Jobs Council,” is criticizing the actions by the NLRB. What will it take for Democrats to stop cozying up to their Big Labor bosses at the expense of American jobs?

BACKGROUND:

Last week, President Obama held a closed-door meeting with a group of Big Labor bosses. Unsurprisingly, officials from both the White House and various unions refused to divulge details of what was discussed:

“OBAMA MUM ON DETAILS FROM SECRET AFL-CIO MEETING”: “President Barack Obama met behind closed doors with labor union bosses from the AFL-CIO on Tuesday morning.

“It’s unclear what happened in the closed-door meeting, which Obama fit into his schedule before the debt-ceiling smoke began settling. Spokespersons for the Obama administration have not responded to The Daily Caller’s requests for comment on what specifically the president discussed with AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and other union bosses.” (Matthew Boyle, “Obama Mum on Details from Secret AFL-CIO Meeting, Critics Bill It as More WH Union Favoritism,” The Daily Caller, 8/3/2011)

It’s not hard to imagine, however, what was discussed. Democrats and the Obama administration are doing the bidding of Big Labor bosses on a number of issues. Not least among these is action by the Obama-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to attempt to shut down a new Boeing factory in South Carolina:

NLRB IS TRYING TO SHUT DOWN A $750 MILLION PLANT IN SC THAT JUST HIRED 1,000 NEW WORKERS: “The agency wants a judge to order Boeing to return all 787 assembly work to Washington, even though the company has already built a new $750 million South Carolina plant and hired 1,000 new workers there.” (Susan Hananel, “Boeing-NLRB Labor Dispute Turns Into Headache for Obama,”Associated Press, 6/29/2011)

OBAMA IS NOW RUSHING TO DEFEND NLRB’S JOB-DESTROYING ACTIONS: “In a formal statement of Administration policy, the White House opposed a bill sponsored by South Carolina Rep. Tim Scott that would reduce the power of the NLRB and prohibit it ‘from ordering any employer to relocate, shut down, or transfer employment under any circumstance.’ Translation: Mr. Obama intends to guard the NLRB for his union allies, but if no one notices, all the better.” (Editorial, “The White House vs. Boeing,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/28/2011)

AFTER HE FIRST TRIED TO “DODGE” THE NLRB ISSUE, CLAIMING “IT’S AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY”: (Phillip Klein, “Obama Dodges Question on NLRB’s Boeing Suit,”The Washington Examiner, 6/29/2011)

EVEN THOUGH THE MAJORITY OF NLRB MEMBERS ARE OBAMA APPOINTEES.(“The Board,” National Labor Relations Board, Accessed 6/29/2011)

MEANWHILE, NLRB’S GENERAL COUNSEL ADMITS HE CAN PROVIDE NO EVIDENCE THAT BOEING BROKE RULES: “Testifying in a field hearing held by the House Oversight Committee in South Carolina, National Labor Relations’ Board acting general counsel Lafe Solomon couldn’t provide evidence that Boeing opening a non-union facility in the state cost union jobs or was retaliatory, even though that’s central to the lawsuit he filed against the company.” (Phillip Klein, “NLRB General Counsel Can’t Provide Evidence That Boeing Action Cost Union Jobs,” The Washington Examiner, 6/17/2011)

Meanwhile, the NLRB is pursuing radical actions on union-organizing rules that would be a severe blow to small business job creators. These rules, some have noted, already failed to make it through a Democrat-controlled Congress. It seems the administration is now taking matters into its own hands:

NLRB’S LATEST “SWEEPING CHANGES” TO UNION RULES “COULDN’T EVEN SURVIVE A DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED CONGRESS”: “The NLRB just proposed the most sweeping changes to union organizing elections in more than 60 years. NLRB board members, most of them appointed by President Barack Obama, want to speed organizing votes, limit legal challenges and give labor organizers easier access to worker information such as street and email addresses. …

“But allowing unaccountable bureaucrats to push through rules that couldn’t survive even a Democratic-controlled Congress is a snub to the voting public who elected their leaders to make just these kinds of big decisions in Washington.”(Editorial, “Don’t Let NLRB Usurp Congress,” Wisconsin State-Journal, 6/29/2011)

NLRB SEEMS TO ASSUME THAT WORKERS WHO VOTE NOT TO ORGANIZE DO SO “BECAUSE OF EMPLOYER INTIMIDATION,” RATHER THAN BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT TO: “Business groups and labor unions will face off at a hearing Monday over a government proposal to streamline the process of union-organizing elections. The central point of dispute is whether workers who vote not to organize do so because they don’t see the benefit or because of employer intimidation.

“The National Labor Relations Board, in the most significant change in the union-election rules in decades, has proposed measures that could cut to as few as 10 days the gap between when a union files to hold an organizing election, and when ballots are cast. The current median is 38 days.” (Melanie Trottman, “Proposal Revamps Union Elections,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/18/2011)

SMALL BUSINESSES WOULD SUFFER IF NLRB FOLLOWS THROUGH ON ITS LATEST FAVOR FOR UNIONS: “But John Raudabaugh, a labor lawyer at Nixon Peabody who will testify for the National Federation of Independent Businesses said many employers, particularly small businesses, ‘don’t have the funds, time or knowledge of relevant labor laws to respond to covert organizing or the speedy elections’ being proposed.” (Melanie Trottman, “Proposal Revamps Union Elections,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/18/2011)

Even Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric and the Chairman of Obama’s “Jobs Council,” is criticizing the actions by the NLRB. What will it take for Democrats to stop cozying up to their union allies at the expense of American jobs?:

OBAMA JOBS COUNCIL CHAIR JEFF IMMELT SIDES WITH BOEING IN NLRB DISPUTE: “General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt said in Greenville today that he sides with The Boeing Co. in its dispute with the National Labor Relations Board involving a new aircraft plant in North Charleston.

“Immelt, who also chairs a council that advises President Obama on job creation, told GreenvilleOnline.com that he was ‘way in support of the Boeing team on this one.’

” ‘You’ve got a world-class, high-tech, job-creating force that’s coming into South Carolina. I just can’t think of one reason why we’d want to slow that down, not one,’ Immelt said while talking to reporters during a visit to GE’s complex in Greenville.” (Rudolph Bell, “GE CEO Jeff Immelt ‘Way in Support of Boeing’ in Labor Dispute,”The Greenville News, 7/13/2011)