Why Reforming the Senate Rules Matters

For workers, the minority’s ability (40 votes) to endlessly block key nominations made by the Obama administration has a real cost.

Even without this abuse of the rules by the minority, workers fighting for economic justice must wait much too long under the National Labor Relations Board process to get their jobs back after being wrongly fired or to finally get a union voice.

Tactics by Senate Republicans this year made a bad situation much worse.

Senate Republicans blocked the nominations of Craig Becker and Mark Pearce because of their support for workers and bargaining rights. The labor board had been operating with just two members for more than a year, creating a huge backlog of important cases and delaying justice for thousands of workers.

CWA took the lead in pressing the Obama administration to name Pearce and Becker as recess appointments, after it was clear that the Senate minority would continue to block their nominations. CWA activists convinced 141 members of Congress to sign a petition calling for the 18-month or shorter recess appointments, instead of the full five-year term, and the White House agreed.

That’s the only way workers can even begin to see economic justice.