Free Republic

DEMS ANSWER WALKER WITH LABOR LAW BILL: Two days after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled his plans to eliminate the NLRB and take right-to-work national, congressional Democrats will today propose legislation developed with the AFL-CIO to stiffen penalties for employers who violate the National Labor Relations Act. Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Bobby Scott will introduce a bill that they say would “help ensure workers are able to have a voice in the workplace and would crack down on employers who break the law when workers exercise their right to collective action.” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will stand alongside the...

The Wisconsin governor who's known for taking on unions in his home state is holding the event Monday afternoon at XTreme Manufacturing. He said he'll discuss his plan to transfer power from union bosses to taxpayers. He said the strategy includes preventing the government from deducting union dues from federal employees' paychecks. Las Vegas is home to powerful labor groups, including the Culinary Union that represents some 55,000 casino workers.

MADISON, Wis. — Sinking in the national polls, the bumbling campaign of onetime frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is preparing to double down with renewed attacks on working people. Career politician Walker’s desperate bid to remain competitive on the backs of the middle class and working people will be unveiled in a Monday speech in Las Vegas Nevada, hometown of anti-union, Walker mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. “Scott Walker has always been willing to do or say anything to try to win an election,” commented One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “It’s no surprise he’s...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker plans to focus Monday on weakening labor by proposing to abolish unions for federal workers, create a national "right-to-work law" and eliminate the National Labor Relations Board.At a Las Vegas manufacturer, he also plans to call for requiring all unions to hold periodic votes so workers can decide whether they should continue to exist, according to his campaign. He will also cancel President Barack Obama's Labor Day order that federal contractors provide paid sick leave and work to end policies requiring some salaried workers to receive overtime—saying in some cases they should get time off instead."It's...

A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge ruled that agreements signed by employees of Oklahoma-based arts and crafts company Hobby Lobby requiring them to submit to arbitration rather than go to court in work disputes are unenforceable. The ruling by the government's labor enforcement agency, announced Wednesday, could potentially undermine a common practice used by employers to avoid litigation under federal labor laws. "This is a dramatic decision," said David Rosenfeld, attorney for the Committee to Preserve the Religious Right to Organize, the group that brought the charges against Hobby Lobby. "If the board affirms it and the courts...

Employees with access to their employer’s email system have the right to use it for union organizing and other communications about wages and working conditions, but only during “nonworking time,” the National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday. The ruling overturns a 2007 board decision stating employees don’t have a statutory right to use their employer’s email system for such purposes. Since then, the board’s makeup has changed and the board’s three Democrats agreed to overturn the earlier decision. The two Republican members dissented. The ruling, part of a rush of decisions the board is expected to make by Dec. 16,...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become a lightning rod for controversy under President Obama, with its aggressive actions fueling sustained warfare between business and labor. From the labor board’s bitter fight with Boeing, to the creation of new union election rules, the NLRB has repeatedly moved to the forefront of political debate, drawing in Congress, the White House and even the Supreme Court. The NLRB’s latest bombshell was dropped on Thursday, when the board determined the waste management agency Browning-Ferris should be considered a “joint employer” of temporary workers. The decision expands the definition of what it means...

Why should a union representing workers who are not employees of McDonald’s be empowered to squeeze concessions out of McDonald’s? Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? In a party-line decision, the Democrat-dominated National Labor Relations Board has decided that employees of contractors can be treated as employees of other companies when . . . well, when it is convenient for Democratic constituencies that they be so treated. The underlying case involved an operator of recycling centers, Browning-Ferris Industries of California, which uses subcontractors to staff some of its facilities. Firms have many reasons for using subcontracted labor, one of which...

You can rightly complain about the things which go on inside the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department or the EPA and all of the headline grabbing controversies which erupt from them. None of them, however, may be up to nearly as much mischief as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) though it doesn’t seem to catch the attention of the media nearly as much. This week they were at it again and while a bit on the wonky side, a new wrinkle in the rules could spell big trouble for America’s employers and many, many workers....

Last year there was a burst of excitement in some quarters over the prospect of college football players forming a union. Leftists nearly always think that unions are good because they supposedly promote social justice and when an apparent majority of the players on Northwestern’s team said they wanted to form a union, that gladdened many a collectivist heart. Then, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago gave the players the green light. Joy! But on August 17, however, the full National Labor Relations Board unanimously declined jurisdiction, which means that it won’t pursue the case...

The National Labor Relations Board on Monday blocked a historic bid by Northwestern University football players to form the nation’s first college athletes’ union, dealing a blow to a labor movement that could have transformed amateur sports. In a unanimous decision, the board said the prospect of having both union and nonunion teams could lead to different standards at different schools—from the amount of money players receive to the amount of time they can practice—and create competitive imbalances on the field. The ruling dismissed a stunning decision in March 2014 by a regional NLRB director in Chicago who said football...

Congressional Republicans are using the power of the purse to do battle against a series of controversial labor regulations from the Obama administration. They say the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) gave a gift to labor unions by issuing what they call an “ambush election” rule that speeds up the process for organizing in the workplace. Republican lawmakers are also incensed by a joint-employer policy that holds companies responsible for the labor violations of their business partners, and by a “micro-union” policy that paves the way for multiple labor unions to organize in a single workplace. Now tasked with crafting...

What if you won an election butt the incumbent refused to leave?I know, silly isn’t it? However that’s exactly what happened in Alabama. Employees of an Alabama plant will be voting for the fifth time on whether it will oust the United Auto Workers union. The union has lost three of the four previous votes at NTN-Bower Corporation, but has filed appeals with the National Labor Relations Board alleging management interference.The one vote won by the union was nullified for voting irregularities. In that January vote, only 139 of the plant's 140 workers voted, but a total of 148 ballots...

House Speaker John A. Boehner criticized Obama's decision. "The NLRB's ambush election rule is an assault on the rights and privacy protections of American workers," Boehner said. "With his veto, the president has once again put the interests of his political allies ahead of the small-business owners and hardworking Americans who create jobs and build a stronger economy." The rule was a victory for unions, which have long complained that the process is too long. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, using language similar to Obama, has said that the board's "modest but important reforms" will help reduce delays and make it...

The federal government has said in a major, closely watched lawsuit that McDonald's Corp. violated workers' union rights at its individual franchise restaurants. What officials haven't said is exactly how the corporation did this since it didn't actually employ the workers, the franchise owners did. To win the case, the government will have to prove that McDonald's is a "joint employer" of the workers with the franchises — a concept that runs counter to very understanding of what a franchise is: a legally separate entity that merely rents out the parent corporation's trademarks. The actual charging documents by National Labor...

President Obama's National Labor Relations Board will consider a case this week with important implications for the future of the franchise industry. Last year, NLRB's lead attorney found that McDonald's corporation should be treated as a "joint employer," meaning that it be responsible for the business and labor practices at each and every one of its franchise operations. This week, an administrative law judge will determine the viability of that finding. If he confirms it, McDonald's could face numerous suits and actions from the NLRB....

Richard Griffin was appointed to the National Labor Relations Board via a recess appointment and still serves despite a court ruling that his appointment was illegal. House Republicans on Thursday struck down a labor board rule which critics say unfairly benefit unions.The National Labor Relations Board rule, which was finalized in December, shortens the length of time in which a labor union certification election is held from the current median of 38 days to as little as 11 days.Calling it the “ambush election” rule, critics argue it will deprive employees time to fully understand the impact of unionizing before they...

The federal government is stepping into the void of decades of inattentiveness to religious identity at several Catholic colleges. The chapel at St. Mary's College of California in Moraga is seen in a 2009 photo. (CNS photo/courtesy St. Mary's College of California) While many Catholics have been concerned for decades about professors at Catholic colleges denying core Church teachings on theological issues, as well as about disputes over women’s ordination, same-sex marriage, and abortion on Catholic campuses, few Catholic college leaders have been willing to enforce the requirements of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which mandates that Catholic college faculty teach in...

Congressional Republicans launched a drive Monday to repeal a recent National Labor Relations Board rule updating procedures for union representation elections, setting up a likely veto showdown with President Barack Obama. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said the GOP will employ a little-used law that permits the Senate to reject some federal agency regulations by majority vote and denies opponents the ability to thwart action through a filibuster. Alexander said that by shortening the time between a union’s request for representation and the actual balloting, the NLRB had cleared the way for a new type of “ambush election” to take place...

Anti-union forces claim UAW ‘stuffed’ ballot box. Workers in Alabama are staging a fourth attempt to kick the United Auto Workers (UAW) out of their plant following claims that stuffed ballot boxes derailed their last vote. Employees at the NTN-Bower Corporation, a ball bearings manufacturer, have unsuccessfully tried to boot the labor giant out of their factory for two years. Workers voted to decertify the UAW in an earlier election, but an Obama-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) panel threw out the election. Another election was held in January of this year. The UAW prevailed, but it was later revealed...