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Republicans Push NLRB Attack Bill Through House
House Republicans today continued their attack on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) when they passed (238-186) a bill that would cripple the agency and allow employers to retaliate against workers who exercise their workplace rights. Under the bill, employers would even be able to legally eliminate workers’ jobs. The bill is not expected to be brought up for a Senate vote.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says about the bill (H.R. 2587):
Instead of creating good jobs, Tea Party Republicans are wasting time and playing partisan politics. H.R. 2587 is an over-reaching, special interest bill that advances the interests of corporate donors while attacking working people, their rights and their jobs. It’s one more example of an anti-worker agenda that’s bad for America and bad for the middle class.
Republicans, tea party extremists and business groups have used a routine complaint the NLRB issued against the Boeing Co. in April as cover for their near hysterical and sweeping attacks on workers and the NLRB.
In April, the general counsel of the nonpartisan, independent NLRB issued a complaint against Boeing for moving a planned production line for its 787 Dreamliner from its unionized Puget Sound, Wash., plant to a nonunion facility in South Carolina. The complaint says the move was in retaliation against the Puget Sound workers for having previously exercised their federally guaranteed right to strike against Boeing and to prevent these workers from striking in the future.
In a videotaped interview with The Seattle Times, a senior Boeing executive said, “the overriding factor” in the company’s decision to move the line wasn’t “the business climate. And it wasn’t the wages we’re paying today.” It was, he said, to avoid strikes. That is illegal. (For more information, check the NLRB’s fact sheet on the complaint against Boeing.)
In a letter to House members, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel says:
Retaliating against workers for exercising their legally protected rights, as Boeing is alleged to have done, is against the law, and has been for 75 years. H.R. 2587 would take away the NLRB’s authority to restore workers to their jobs when companies simply eliminate work in order to get rid of employees who are pro-union or when companies eliminate work to avoid their legal obligation to bargain.
Earlier this week 250 professors said the bill would mean that:
Employers will be able to eliminate jobs or transfer employees or work for no purpose other than to punish employees for exercising their rights and the Board will be powerless to direct the employer to return the work regardless of the circumstances. And these employees will lose their jobs because they tried to exercise their federally protected rights.
In June, an NLRB administrative law judge rejected Boeing’s motion to dismiss the charges. The case is now being heard in Seattle.
Yesterday, NLRB acting general counsel Lafe Solomon issued a statement, saying his decision to issue a complaint against Boeing “was based on a careful investigation and a review of the facts under longstanding federal labor law.”
The decision had absolutely nothing to do with political considerations, and there were no consultations with the White House. Regrettably, some have chosen to insert politics into what should be a straightforward legal procedure. These continuing political attacks are baseless and unprecedented and take the focus away from where it belongs—the ongoing trial in Seattle.
Says Trumka:
The American people are calling on Congress to focus on job creation. Shame on those who are pursuing a political agenda that does the bidding of big corporations.
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14 Comments
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I cannot follow this article by Mike Hall, the headline says the bill was passed but there is nothing in Mike Hall’s writing that says the bill was passed in the House!
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Either way, this means there needs to be a three-pronged activism by labor unions and their members:
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1) CONTACT all U.S. legislators of BOTH houses in your voting district REGARDLESS of their party affiliation and regardless if they are in the House of Representatives or are Senators because the Senators will get this bill next for approval:
Criticize Repugnican action against the NLRB and particularly against the elected official IF HE OR SHE VOTED OR SUPPORTED AT ANY TIME the campaign to pass HR-2587 — but be sure you do not criticize anyone if they oppose HR-2587 PARTICULARLY IF THEY ARE REPUBLICAN!!! I don’t know of any Republicans who may have denounced or refused to vote in favor of HR-2587, but there may have been ONE somewhere, so don’t attack THAT person, just explain why you approve of his or her denouncement of HR-2587;
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2) You can write to your local or regional newspapers and state your views against HR-2587 in letters to the editor, and if there is a radio talk show, it is important that if they have a subject on HR-2587 that you call in to denounce the bill;
3) You can join in public demonstrations aagainst HR-2587 because public image of organized denouncement of the bill will count heavily in public opinion.
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And above all, remain civil and orderly and respectful of all people in the public regardless of whether they support you or not… reason may win out in opponents’ reflection of your presence against the bill, and that change-of-mind is invaluable !!!!
Republicans are not going to alow the economy to recover. This actions keeps people scared, concerned about their jobs. Also this action makes Obama look bad. We need to start buying business and alow the unions and employers to elect someone to run it for the employees. The constitution permits the people to make changes to make life better.
You’ve got that right Michel, the Reugnant Party’s bosses can make more money off the debt and scrap value of our country than on a thriving economy, because a thriving economy KEEPS the money in the economy and out of The Establishment’s bank accounts!
As working Americans we have only one job to do between now and the 2012 election,work towards a complete defeat of all the corporate fooled , koch smoking , teabagger fools.
Well, I don’t know how anyone can do that, Ivan, but what we really need to do now is to mobilize immediately to educate an impressionable and ignorant public who can be fooled into believing the Repugnant Party propaganda! And I mean EDUCATE… not propagandize, because the public will retaliate if we are not 150% honest with them!
We dont have to be afraid of terrorist dismantling this country, we have the repubicans. Get ridof them in the next election and for those who are still on the fence of reelecting Obama, be glad we have him for is the republicans win this is just a sample of what to expect.
These continuous attacks on the working people of this country will hopefully unite both union and non union workers. What is done to the union workers has an effect on the non union little do they know.
We will ONLY succeed in uniting the non-union workers with union workers IF we can convince them with rationality that “saving” money on not paying union dues and that going along with Establishment is better than participating in Democracy is REALLY their downfall!
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We need to correct their awareness — NOT THEIR THINKING — of what is really the price of not supporting labor’s issues with workers’ rights, and then their thinking will change to join us. Just like what Lech Walensa did with Solidariosi in Poland decades ago! THAT was his message!
The U.S. House of Representatives’ vote to impose restrictive constraints on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Thursday, September 15, 2011 had a rather strong emotional impact on those of us Labor advocates still hopeful that the 75 year old body, formed by Senator Wagner’s National labor Act (NLA), would be a useful tool protecting employees from unfair treatment at the hands of employers. The new language, which reactionary elements of the Republican House membership had included in this HR2587, would no longer prevent illegal offshoring or outsourcing of business.
the National Labor Relations Board is charged with President Franklin Delano Rroosevelt’s dictum to insure employers treat workers consistent with the laws of our land. this amendment would turn the clock back almost four score years to the days of rapacious tycoons like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould when employees were completely at the mercy of employers. Fortunately the Democrat controlled U.S. Senate has shown no great desire to deal with this malicious attempt to inflict yet more suffering on those occupying the lowest socio-economic ladder rungs. It appears this shall be a gratuitios hateful slap at our middle class. Our last decade has witnessed a 12% decline in the bottom 10 percentile of household incomes.
Since 2002, economists tell us, that 2.9 million U.S. jobs have been cut while 4 million positions were outsourced overseas. In his zealous attempts to placate those wealthy investors and corporate interests, whose campaign contributions feed the campaign coffers of GOP legislators, Eric Cantor, majority whip in the House, has been targeting Labor and environmental interests. this is part of that assault. this latest attack was ignited by aircraft manufacturer Boeing’s attempt to escape the active trade union representation in Washington state and move operations to South Carolina, a Right to Work state with strong anti-union sentiment. The Boeing Company has been rather quiet, publicly, on this legislation. Our AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka, has, on the other hand been a very vocal critic of this latest affront to this nation’s working men and women.
As our 2012 general election date approaches, all Americans shoul keep this vote count of 238-186 in the forefront of their minds. Those reactionary toadies of corporate interests who participated in this latest blatant, egregious attack on workers should inspire every voter interested in social justice and fairness to reject those right wing nuts that would restore the master/serf relatiohship for our current employr/employee contracted relationship.
Fraternally,
Data shows that as union membership decreases, the average wage of worker’s decrease in direct proportion. This loss of money in the middle class consumer’s market is fundamental to our economic problems. This problem did not happen suddenly. It developed over the years as the workers per capita income eroded and legislation that favored corporation’s and ultimately Wall Street’s growing profits over worker’s rights and the income that built our outstanding quality of life in America..
This bill is a major attempt to further this agenda. Unions need our support in its effort to reverse this trend. It is for the good of all Americans
. Even corporations are getting the negative effect of this trend, as production went down along with the per capita income of the middle to lower economic class Paradoxically, the corporations have regained record profit with low sales by cutting jobs, ..damaging our economy more and increasing the country’s budget expenditures and deficits for unemployment benefits It’s a kind of karma.[ killing the goose that laid the golden egg -working consumers].
. Unions need our support in it’s effort to reverse this trend. It is for the good o ALL Americans, .even corporations and the wealthy.
AMERICA IS IN BAD SHAPE AND WE NEED JOBS TO STAY IN AMERICA .. DUE TO ALL THE FAILURES OF THE OBAMA STIMULUS AFTER 3 YEARS WE ARE FACING BIGGER PROBLEMS WITH OBAMA LEADERSHIP WITH HIS WILD SPENDING OF STIMULUS PROGRAMS AND WE SEE MANY FAILED BUISNESS’S NOW FILE-ING BANKRUPTCY OF THE GREEN JOBS .. ITS ABOUT 5 MILLION A JOB AND THERE ONLY TEMP JOBS .. AFTER 50 YEARS OF SOLAR IN AMERICA THEY NEVER PRODUCE WHAT THEY CALIM TO DO, IT WOULD BE BETTER TO GIVE EVERY TAX PAYER 5 MILLION EACH THEN TO SPEND TAX PAYERS DOLLARS TO SPECIAL INTEREST COMPANYS WHO TAKE OUR MONEY AND RUN ..
We are not even close to spending to much. He should triple the spending. The great Robert B Reich said we need a lot more spending And he is a lot smarter then you and I. I say spend, spend, spend.
I used to think that our Congress was just inept , greedy corporate owned puppets , but now I see them to be a milignant growth; as a cancer to our great union!Why even have a NRLB if Congress is going to overide,tamper with and dishonor them. with unsecured borders, millions of illegal aliens, an economy that is almost in the crapper,a much needed overhaul on our infrastructure and plenty of people out of work to help repair it, out of control spending on foreign aid , warfare and extortion style paychecks for all our government’s officers. This very body of miscreants, traitors andc backstabbers along with The (honorable?)Supreme Court have sold out most publicly ,to their shame and dishonor, to Big Business and the total demise of our Republic. They would outsource our jobs ,wealth and our children’s futures. They ignore the oath of office. They bicker ,obstruct and devalue our Democracy. They try so hard to distort the Constitution that the swore to uphold. I want them brought before a tribunal of the people to be ued for breach of promise, dereliction of duty and stealing an unearned paycheck while supporting The Federal reserve Bank act that they could repeal ,but will not. There will be no statesmen as long as we are governed by corporate goals and desires. We The People is no longer in existance. Big business lawyers and white collar crooks run the nation and we all know that i the truth. Only when we come together as the force to be reckonned with( the masses) and reinstitute the principals of our great democratic republic, by revolution if need be. Read The Declaration of independce, The Articles ; READ OUR CONSTITUTION and the amenendments. see for yourself what 160 years of corporate influence has done to WE THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS. Seperation of church and state> freewill ,choice ,the right to bear arms and demand decent wages for work done in a state where it feeds your family and pays inflated bills.This is not the America our founding fathers meant to establish. Jefferson, Adams , franklin, for a few, warned us to keep banks and business out of our legislature. so why a lobby or porkbarrel and war mongering for profit. we need a publicly funded campaign, instant dismissal from Congress for a number of set violations ( a jury of their peers ,not our corrupt Supreme Court)!It won’t get better until we make it so.
Well, you touched accurately on all the points Nozzey, but you have a few misconceptions through no fault of your own, it is the fault of the Establishment propaganda that has infected our nation that your misperceptions have occurred, and I had to read far down into your writing before I came to your first misperception. So I’ll go in order of your statements.
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1) The Federal Reserve Act should not be repaled but should be revised to serve our nation’s best interests and not be infiltrated and controlled by the banking interests. The Federal Reserve worked splendidly until the bankers were allowed by our Congress to infiltrate and subvert it as a government organization. Now it is the private club of the banking businesses and financial mafia.
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2) We The People are still in existence, all right, but, we have become a nation of wimpy subordinated people who are falsely-patriotic to the tyranny of The Establishment, and we think that “law and order” means that we should outright reject the premise that We The People own our political system through Democracy and that we should unquestionally obey The Establishment’s anti-Democracy rule over us !!!!
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3) Coming together as a “force” should ONLY be through Democracy !!!!! Even our unionization MUST be as a form of Democracy !!!! There can be no justice and can be no freedom in any other way than THROUGH Democracy !!!!!
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4) Revolution does not work unless in the extreme dire oppression such as the people in the so-called “Middle East” are fighting against. There, a revolution is highly justified! WhAt we desperately need in our United States of America is the forced reform of our political system through natizen-imposed Democracy into making our United states become a genuine Democracy, and The Establishment is NOT going to allow that by default because they own us and control us already! THAT was what the 1960s military draft and anti-war demonstrations were all about!
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5) YES !!!!!! Especially READ OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE because it is OUR NATION’S CHARTER and The Establishment desperately does not want us to know about that fact !!!!! The Declaration of Independence is what our U.S. Constitution was SUPPOSED to resemble, but was fought over in controversy by the “founding fathers” !!!!
6) The only place you are going to find our U.S. Constitution to read is in a LAW LIBRARY !!!!! Even lawyers do not understand – nor do they believe this and lawyers will even argue that I am citing a myth, which I am not !!! But you can catch them in their indoctrinated propaganda when they CITE the Constitution as having SECTIONS to each ARTICLE and then you’ve CAUGHT THEM in their LIES — BECAUSE –THE SECTIONS TO EACH ARTICLE HAVE NEVER BEEN RATIFIED AND YET ARE A PART OF OUR U.S. CONSTITUTION WHICH FILLS 66 VOLUMES THE LAST TIME I SAW OUR U.S. CONSTITUTION IN 2001 !!!!
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NOW does everyone understand why The Establishment can RULE over us in blatant violation of Democracy ????