NLRB Union Protest Cancels Anniversary Event

by James Parks, Sep 12, 2007

Organizers of a program to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) regional office in Newark, N.J., canceled the program this week after members of the union representing board employees announced they would hold an informational picket at the event where NLRB General Counsel Ronald Meisburg was scheduled to speak.

The members of the NLRB Union (NLRBU) are protesting Meisburg’s refusal to bargain with the union. The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) ruled in March that the NLRBU may consolidate four bargaining units at the board and counsel’s office into one and that the NLRB must negotiate with the new combined unit. But Meisburg says the combined unit, which includes employees who report to the general counsel as well as employees who work for the five-member board, conflicts with the National Labor Relations Act’s delegation of independent authority to the general counsel. The FLRA on Aug. 15 issued an unfair labor practice complaint against the NLRB and scheduled an Oct. 9 hearing before an administrative law judge.

NLRBU President Eric Brooks said:

Although it was not our objective to cause cancellation [of the Newark program], any law school or bar association considering inviting the general counsel as a speaker should be aware that the union will likely handbill and engage in informational picketing [and] there may be some people who might not want to attend.

The union has called for Meisburg to resign. Union members picketed outside the NLRB’s Washington, D.C., headquarters building Aug. 15.

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