House Members Stand Up for NLRB

U.S. Representatives Linda Sánchez (CA-38) and Joe Courtney (CT-2) were joined by nearly 200 of their Democratic colleagues in calling on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to end the obstruction over executive nominations, including the five nominations to the National Labor Relations Board.

A letter, signed by 201 House Democrats, was delivered to McConnell on Tuesday; an ad featuring that letter ran in the next day's Politico, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

At a news conference outside the Capitol, Sánchez, Courtney and other members of Congress were joined by workers who know just how important the NLRB is.

Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) calls on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to stop the obstruction over the five nominations to the National Labor Relations Board.

Below: At a Capitol Hill news conference, Gertrude Villegas, a Cablevision technician, says Cablevision won't bargain fairly and only the NLRB can enforce the law.

"More than 80 million private sector employees rely on the National Labor Relations Board for protection from unfair labor practices," said Congresswoman Sánchez. "By threatening to shut down the NLRB's ability to function, Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans undermine the very foundation of our country's labor laws and workplace protections. Republicans should stop this reckless attack on workers' rights. The American people deserve better than this."

Congressman Courtney said: "This blatant attempt to prevent the National Labor Relations Board from functioning for our nation's workers and employers is shameful. Without a functioning board, appeals would not be heard, decisions would not be enforced, and violations of workers' rights would go without remedy."

Gertrude Villegas, a technician at Cablevision in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a member of CWA Local 1109, said "without the NLRB, Cablevision won't bargain fairly and there won't be any agency that can make it bargain."

Last January, 22 of her co-workers at Cablevision were illegally fired and locked out, "thrown away like yesterday's newspaper, to send a message to those of us still employed," Villegas said.

The NLRB cited Cablevision for that action, and for illegally promising big raises and other financial incentives to technicians in the Bronx, as long as they dropped their support for a union. Cablevision even went to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the NLRB hearing. That effort failed, and the hearing will go forward.

Kathleen Von Eitzen, a baker at a Panera Bread franchise in Michigan, said after workers won union representation in March 2012, her employer stepped up the intimidation, retaliating against her because she supports the union and even terminating one of the most outspoken union supporters.

We need the NLRB to enforce labor law.