We’re All the Deciders Under Labor Board Decision—Brainstorming Session Set

by James Parks, Jan 29, 2007

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff in joined hundreds of Tennessee union and civil rights members to protest the decision by Bush’s NLRB.

When the Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted along party lines last fall to slash long-time federal labor laws protecting workers’ freedom to form unions, it opened the door for employers to take away union protection for as many as 8 million workers in nearly every profession. Under federal labor law, supervisors are prohibited from forming unions.

The board’s new definition essentially enables employers to make a supervisor out of any worker who has the authority to assign or direct another and uses independent judgment. Amazingly, the board also ruled that a worker can be classified as a supervisor if he or she spends as little as 10 percent to 15 percent of his or her time overseeing the work of others.

On Feb. 7, the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE) is bringing together elected officials, organizers, lawyers and union leaders to discuss the impact of the NLRB decisions on workers and brainstorm on what to do next to reverse the decisions. To register for the DPE conference, email Leandra Kennedy (lkennedy@dpeaflcio.org) by Thursday, Feb. 1.

DPE President Paul Almeida describes how the NLRB rulings affect every worker:

These NLRB decisions about supervisory status attack not just professional and technical workers, but everyone. It’s an attack that, for the sake of workers, we’ve got to overcome.

Under the decisions, anyone who offers guidance to others risks losing union protections. Union activists tend to be natural leaders. Other workers look to them for guidance at work. That makes these decisions even more of a danger to workers’ rights.

The decisions could lower the standard of living for millions of working Americans. Just a week before the NLRB’s Sept. 29 decision, Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), told a conference that with the median wage dropping over the past five years, denying union membership to 8 million workers would drive down wages and increase the growing inequality in our nation.

Eisenbrey will be among the variety of speakers at the DPE conference. Other speakers include AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka; Susan Davis, general counsel to the United American Nurses; AFL-CIO Legislation Director Bill Samuel and Nancy Schiffer, AFL-CIO associate general counsel.

Last September, the NLRB ruled on three cases, collectively known as Kentucky River, but it’s the lead case, Oakwood Healthcare Inc. that creates a new definition of supervisor. Although the Oakwood decision covers only nurses, the expanded definition of supervisors means up to 8 million workers, including nurses, building trades workers, newspaper and television employees and others may be barred from joining unions. In Oakwood, the board agreed with the employer that charge nurses are supervisors.

The ruling also sets broad definitions for determining who is a supervisor that invites employers to classify nurses and many low-level employees with minor authority as supervisors.

Working families are calling on Congress to act to reverse the NLRB rulings. Send a message to your member of Congress here.

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