New NLRB chief sees a future where workers’ rights top the agenda

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/14672/


Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 02/28/09 11:30


Wilma Liebman

For years, as a member of the National labor Relations Board, she spoke out against the Bush-appointed majority on that board. For years she felt frustration over how, in ruling after ruling, that board interpreted key parts of the National Labor relations Act in ways that hurt workers. Now, after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, she has become the chairman of that board.

Wilma Liebman says she looks forward to a future where workers’ rights, and how to insure them, are once again at the top of the national agenda.

The NLRB was created under the National labor Relations Act, itself a key part of FDR’s New Deal. The original purpose of the act was to help build the foundations for mass prosperity by reigning in the out-of-control business practices that had caused the Great Depression in the first place. Other legal building blocks in the New Deal were the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established minimum wage and overtime pay guidelines, and the Public Utility Holding Company Act, which regulated public utilities. The Republicans eventually saw to it that the public utility controls were eliminated.

Unlike those other New Deal laws, however the National Labor Relations Act had, and still has, only small penalties for labor law breakers. The Employee Free Choice Act would sharply increase those fines and it would give the NLRB more power to get court orders against labor law breakers.

Employee free choice would allow workers to choose, either by majority sign-up or by election, whether they want union representation. Under the National Labor relations Act, the company makes that choice. Many companies that choose an election, which is run by Liebmans’s board, break the law during the campaign by harassing and even firing union supporters and by forcing workers to attend mandatory anti-union propaganda sessions

Liebman told Press Associates, the union news service, last week that, although she cannot take an official position for or against the Employee Free Choice Act, the National Labor relations Act is outmoded because “it is 70 years old and was written for an industrial era when workers toiled on the assembly line and often stayed with the same firm for years – not like now. I would hop any changes made take into account changes in the work
FULL story at link.

[RoccoR5955]

1. Reagan is spinning in his grave. GOOD! n/t

[Earth Bound Misfit]

3. heh...

[Earth Bound Misfit]

2. K & R

Wilma Liebman wrote this letter to NYT editor 12/29/08:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/l05labor.html?_r=3

To the Editor:

Labor policy is indeed a long-neglected arena, ripe for the intervention of President-elect Barack Obama. What the editorial doesn’t mention is the opportunity to revitalize the National Labor Relations Board, which administers the main federal labor law.

During the Bush administration, nearly every policy choice made by a sharply divided board impeded collective bargaining, created obstacles to union representation or favored employer interests. Not surprisingly, the board has lost legitimacy.

There has been a steep decline in the number of cases brought to the agency. And for more than a year, the board itself has been in limbo, with three of its five seats vacant, as controversial decisions translated into Senate gridlock on nominations.

President-elect Obama will have the chance to make new appointments to the board. With them comes the chance to start moving labor law in a better direction.

Wilma B. Liebman
Washington, Dec. 29, 2008

The writer is one of two remaining members of the National Labor Relations Board.


:kick: :applause: :thumbsup: :patriot: