Short-Handed NLRB Sets Aside 15 Percent of Cases, Chair Tells Senate

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/45/40.html

A shortage of commissioners has caused the National Labor Relations Board to set aside about 15 percent of the cases in its pipeline, according to its recently appointed chairman.

April 2, 2008

Short-Handed NLRB Sets Aside 15 Percent of Cases, Chair Tells Senate
A shortage of commissioners has caused the National Labor Relations Board to set aside about 15 percent of the cases in its pipeline, according to its recently appointed chairman.

Only two people are serving on what should be a five-person board that administers federal law governing labor organizing. Nominees for the other three positions haven’t been confirmed by the Senate, as the Democratic majority tussles with President Bush over dozens of nominations.

Peter Schaumber, a current NLRB member who was elevated to chairman by Bush on March 18, told a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, April 2, that the board continues to operate.

Schaumber and Wilma Liebman, who was appointed by President Clinton, issued 54 decisions from January 1 through the end of February. For the last five fiscal years, the board has issued 500 cases annually.

The short-handed board is limiting its agenda. “We cannot decide cases which raise issues of first impression and we can’t revisit board law,” Schaumber said in an interview following his Capitol Hill appearance. He has instructed NLRB staff to look for older cases in which there is likely to be common ground between him and Liebman.

During the hearing, they disagreed on how the NLRB has performed during the Bush administration, when it has had a Republican majority.

FULL story at link.