SEARCH
‘NLRB Clean out Your Ears and Hear Us’ |
|
As early as this summer, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could take away Mary Thoennes’ freedom to join a union—along with the rights of 8 million other workers. This week, Thoennes is joining thousands of other nurses, construction workers, miners and other workers across the nation to demand the NLRB protect their rights. (Check here for a list of events nationwide—some may be in your area.)
In a series of cases known as Kentucky River, the Bush-appointed board soon will decide whether nurses, building and construction trades workers, journalists and others are “supervisors.” If the NLRB expands the definition of supervisor to include such workers, they no longer will be able to join a union. That figure would be in addition to the 8.6 million workers already barred from joining unions because they have been excluded from labor law coverage.
Thoennes, a member of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, has made a difference helping patients at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee for the past 15 years. She says taking her union membership away would be harmful to her patients:
You know you’re making a difference; it’s only for a day, but that’s the day that changed someone’s life. They are nurses because they want to be at the bedside. If the charge nurses aren’t there on the floor, patient care will suffer.
The NLRB has refused to hear oral arguments on the cases—and has heard no oral arguments, a fundamental part of any due process, since the Bush administration took office. In fact, the NLRB denied union requests to hear oral arguments in these cases.
Yesterday in Nashville, AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff said it is “outrageous that the NLRB would consider deciding to disenfranchise millions of people and not hear from the workers most affected.”
What we are doing here in Nashville and around the country is drawing the line and telling the NLRB to stop the assault on America’s workers.
Acuff and more than 250 workers rallied at the NLRB regional office in Nashville. Carrying giant papier mâche Q-tips and signs saying, “Clean out five years of wax. Hear the workers,” the marchers demanded that the NLRB hear oral arguments on the Kentucky River cases.
After the rally, five union members walked into the NLRB office and presented the regional director with 100 signed letters asking the board to hear oral arguments on the cases.
Today, hundreds of workers will march and participate in civil disobedience at the NLRB headquarters in Washington, D.C., to dramatize the importance of protecting our rights. Actions also are taking place in Portland, Ore., Phoenix, Chicago, Milwaukee and Albuquerque, N.M.
No Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
