Rouge NRLB Blocking Probe

On October 20, 2011, By NRTW Committee Staff

House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) accused the National Labor Relations Board of being a “rogue agency” in a letter to its general counsel Monday. The chairman claimed the NLRB knowingly withheld damaging documents relating to his committee’s probe of the agency’s controversial Boeing complaint, the Investors Business Daily Reports:

Issa was referring to a cache of emails obtained earlier this month by the watchdog group Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act.

He expressed anger that the emails were not turned over to his committee first and said the messages demonstrated the agency’s lack of impartiality. He further alleged that some of them contradicted claims NLRB staffers made as part of his committee’s probe.

NLRB spokeswoman Nancy Cleland said the agency had not withheld the emails. She said that the committee’s requests and the FOIA requests that produced the emails were handled separately by different people and that caused confusion.

“Because the documents were being produced on separate tracks, the Committee had not yet received some materials at the time they were provided to Judicial Watch. It is the Agency’s intent to provide those materials as part of its next, and fourth, delivery of documents later this week,” Cleland said in a statement to IBD, adding that in the future the committee requests will be given priority over FOIA requests.

The 505 pages of emails do not contain especially startling revelations. For the most part, the NLRB staffers appear to be very circumspect in their messages to each other. There are several redacted sections, most citing FOIA exceptions for privacy and attorney work product.

Nevertheless in several cases NLRB staffers do offer some personal commentary on the Boeing case and the effect is not unlike listening in at the watercooler. Those messages show the staff to be enthused at the prospect of bringing the aerospace giant to heel and disdainful of their critics on the case.

At the time of the Boeing case, its chairwoman was Wilma Liebman, a former Teamsters lawyer. Obama had also appointed former Service Employees International Union lawyer Craig Becker to the five-member board. Only one board member was a Republican.“The unprecedented NLRB decision to attack Boeing seemed abusive on its face and cried out for further investigation. And we suspected it was done at the behest of union interests and not the public interest. The pro-union email traffic we uncovered confirm this,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, in an email to IBD.

NLRB attorney, John Mantz, forwarded Willen a link to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The GOP governor was criticizing Obama and his “union-beholden appointees at the National Labor Relations Board” for launching “a direct assault on the 22 right-to-work states across America.”“Deb, have you seen this?” Mantz wrote. Willen didn’t apparently respond, but did forward the link to another attorney, Jayme Sophir, who gave a one-word response: “Ugh.” (more…)

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Posted in: Bailouts to Unions, Big Labor Payback, Boeing, Court Cases, Economic Development in RTW States, Economic Impact of Unionization, Economics, Government Grants to Unions, NLRB, Obama Administration, Right to Work, Right To Work States, South Carolina, State Right To Work, Washington
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Sen. Hatch Wants to Know: Who Wrote the SEIU’s Intimidation Manual?

On September 13, 2011, By NRTW Committee Staff

From Pajama Media’s PJ Tatler:

NLRB member Craig Becker was recess appointed to the labor board by President Obama. His prior career involved being a lawyer for the SEIU, one of the largest and most aggressive Big Labor unions in America. Becker’s time on the NLRB has seen that board attack Boeing for building an aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina, and go after Arizona and South Dakota for passing laws against “card check” unions elections that remove workers’ right to vote via secret ballot. In other words, Becker’s tenure has seen a massive tilt of the NLRB in Big Labor’s favor.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch today is going after Becker directly, over work done while Becker was at the SEIU. That union published a manual that described and encouraged union actions against corporations that included destroying the reputations of corprations and even the personal reputations of corporate leaders. Hatch wants to know who wrote that union intimidation manual.

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today wrote to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member and former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) official Craig Becker to inquire about his involvement in union intimidation efforts. The letter sent to Becker comes after the SEIU’s “Contract Campaign Manual” was made public. The handbook tells union members to purposefully try to damage their employers’ reputations by coming up with allegations against their employers and managers and to even break the law to gain leverage in contract negotiations.

In the letter, Hatch writes that, “the manual explicitly advises union members to engage in tactics designed to attack the reputation of an employer as well as its managers and to purposefully damage an employer’s relationship with vendors and customers.  In addition, it advises employees to uncover “dirt” on management officials and publicize the information in order to obtain leverage in contract negotiations.  The manual even goes so far as to encourage union members to disobey certain laws when it serves the union’s purposes.”

 

 

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Posted in: Intimidation Tactics, NLRB
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NLRB Update – “Obama Labor Board Kills Important Secret Ballot Precedent”

On August 30, 2011, By NRTW Committee Staff

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From the National Right To Legal Defense Foundation who represented the employees at Lamons Gasket and who secured the “Dana Rights” for employees against Card Check Forced Unionism until the Obama NLRB took them away with this decision:

Obama Labor Board Kills Important Secret Ballot Precedent

Worker advocate denounces NLRB’s ruling to take away protection workers have against card check forced unionism

Washington, DC (August 30, 2011) – Today, Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overturned its Dana Corp. decision, in which National Right to Work Foundation attorneys secured for employees the right to challenge union card check organizing campaigns with a secret ballot vote.

Under the Foundation-won Dana decision, workers may collect signatures to request a secret ballot election during a 45-day window period following notice that their employer has recognized a union based on a card check organizing drive. The ruling is intended to counteract coercive practices frequently associated with card check, which allow organizers to bully or mislead employees into signing cards that count as “votes” toward unionization.

The NLRB overturned Dana just as President Obama-appointed NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman’s term expired. Meanwhile, Obama-appointed Board Member Craig Becker, who co-authored a union brief in the original Dana case, refused to recuse himself from the case. Becker, a recess nominee, faces bi-partisan opposition to his confirmation in the U.S. Senate. One Board Member, Bryan Hayes, vigorously dissented and called the ruling a blatant roll back of employee freedom.

Any decertification votes that have been cast but not counted by the NLRB will now be discounted, thereby invalidating the voice of thousands of workers nationwide.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a charitable organization that provides free legal assistance to employees nationwide. The Foundation is providing free legal aid in both the original Dana case and in the newly-decided Lamons Gasket case in which the Board overturned the Dana protections. Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation made the following statement regarding the ruling:

“The Obama Labor Board’s ruling to kill the Dana Corp. precedent that allows workers a secret ballot vote to kick out a union that gained control of the workplace in an abusive ‘card check’ campaign adds to an already exhaustive list of paybacks from the Obama Administration to Big Labor. (more…)

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Posted in: Bailouts to Unions, Big Labor Payback, Card Check, Card Check, Forced Dues, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, National Right to Work Act, NLRB, NRTWLDF, Obama Administration, Personnel Alert, Right to Work
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Video: NRTW’s Messenger Argues Against Obama’s NLRB proposed ‘Ambush Election’ Rules

On July 27, 2011, By NRTW Committee Staff

As NLRB Board member Mark Pearce focused on what personal information should be given to Big Labor to make it easier for union organizers to hound employees 24 hours-a-day, NRTW Attorney Bill Messenger reminded him that the law is supposed to focus on what is best for employees. Messenger pointed out that giving away personal employee details leads to expanded harassment of employees beyond their regular work day; and, due to the disclosure of their private information, employees and their families will be more vulnerable.

But, it appears that the Obama NLRB is readying to hand over more power to its political allies, Big Labor, at the expense of exposed employee personal information. Under Obama, Big Brother continues to grow.

Click here to read Transcript from the video above.

 Watch all videos from the open meeting here.

View the transcript for the July 18, 2011 session of the open meeting here.

View the transcript for the July 19, 2011 session of the open meeting here.

More information on the July 18-19 open meeting, including the speakers list, is available here.

 

 

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Posted in: Elections, NLRB, Obama Administration, Right to Work
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The Inescapable SEIU-NLRB Connection

On July 23, 2011, By NRTW Committee Staff

John Ranson, writing for TownHall.com, points out how the SEIU and their cronies have a heavy hand in the role that the NLRB’s effort to punish companies for moving to Right to Work states:

In just another example of the Obama administration making law by fiat, the National Labor Relations Board head Craig Becker is proposing new rules that would shotgun the formation of new union shops in as quick as ten days.

After the defeat of card check at the legislative ballot box, the former SEIU goon [Becker] is acting creatively in order to implement portions of card check unilaterally.

What would one expect from a guy appointed to his position despite his nomination being rejected by the Senate?

Obama then made a recess appointment of Becker to the NLRB, the presidential equivalent of Enron accounting for political appointees.

NLRB and Becker have been in the news lately because they’ve attacked Boeing for opening a plant in [Right to Work] South Carolina, a state that is less accommodating to union employment but more accommodating to workers and management with project deadlines to keep.

But the attack on Boeing is nothing compared to the attack that Becker and organized labor are going to launch against the rest of us starting today. (more…)

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Posted in: Bailouts to Unions, Big Labor Payback, Economic Development in RTW States, Economic Impact of Unionization, Economics, Elections, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Labor Organizations, Legislation, NLRB, Obama Administration, Public Employees, Right to Work, Right To Work States, SEIU, South Carolina, State RTW
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DeMint continues sounding alarm about NLRB’s attempted Boeing Coup d’état

On June 13, 2011, By NRTW Committee Staff

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint takes on the NLRB again his Human Events column:

Like so many federal programs, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has expanded its mission far beyond its original purpose in order to wage ideological battles on the taxpayers’ dime.

The NLRB was never meant to micromanage where companies can locate or how many products they can manufacture, as the NLRB under the Obama administration is currently seeking to do. To stop it, Congress should exercise its power of the purse to return the board to its original mission.

The NLRB was originally established to oversee union elections and investigate violations of federal labor laws. These days it’s doing less of that than ever. In 1980, the NLRB conducted 8,531 union elections around the country, with a budget of $108 million. In 2009, it oversaw only 1,704 union elections, with a budget of $261 million.

Union membership has plummeted by more than 40% since the 1980s. The rapid collapse of organized labor in America’s private sector has reduced the need for union elections—and thus, the NLRB itself—by 80% over the last three decades. Yet its budget—adjusted for inflation—remains essentially unchanged.

Hence the board’s recent drift into freelance assaults on economic freedom: While 20% of its budget may be needed to perform its real job, the board seems to be misusing the other 80% for ideological mischief.

The current NLRB is expanding its mission far beyond the original intent. Consider what Craig Becker, an NLRB appointee who was rejected by the Senate and then recess-appointed by President Obama, has said. “Just as U.S. citizens cannot opt against having a congressman, workers should not be able to choose against having a union as theirmonopoly-bargaining agent.”

Not only has the NLRB launched an unprecedented attack on right-to-work states and job creators, it is now actively silencing nonunion workers in order to give unions a leg up in its legal case against The Boeing Company. This branch of the federal government, charged with protecting workers’ rights, is suing a company on behalf of workers who are not in danger of losing their jobs, while refusing to listen to the concerns of three workers whose jobs actually are threatened by the NLRB’s own actions.

And the NLRB is now suing two states, Arizona and South Dakota, in an effort to overturn democratically passed laws that protect a worker’s right to a secret ballot in those states. The NLRB is actually taking the stance that union bosses should be able to force workers to sign cards in public to join a union, a practice known as “card check,” instead of making the decision in private without fear of intimidation.

This is not enforcement—this is extremism. (more…)

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Posted in: Arizona, Big Labor Payback, Elections, Exclusive Representation, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Obama Administration, Right to Work, Right To Work States, South Carolina, South Dakota, State Right To Work
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