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Anti-Union NLRB Decisions Provoke Outrage
Labor leaders expressed outrage at the National Labor Relations Board's decision to deprive temporary workers of the right to bargain as part of a unit with permanent employees and to severely restrict their right to organize.
The board's 3-2 vote on Nov. 26 was the third major blow the Republican-dominated board has dealt workers this year. In June, the board voted to eliminate Weingarten rights for workers in nonunion companies, effectively depriving them of the right to have a co-worker present if they are interviewed as part of a disciplinary investigation. In July, the board ruled that graduate teaching assistants at universities are not employees and do not have the right to unionize.
"This trend at the NLRB mocks the original intention of the National Labor Relations Act: to protect bargaining and organizing rights for all workers," said CWA President Morton Bahr. "It undermines the board's whole reason for existence."
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the decisions, "point to an onerous climate in which the board is increasingly siding with employers over workers and denying workers their federally protected rights to form unions." He said they "are part of a dangerous new trend that threatens some of our most fundamental freedoms."
The board's latest decision reversed a 2000 ruling, called M.B. Sturgis, which said that combining permanent workers and temps in the same unit was permissible.
The two dissenting members - appointed by former President Clinton - cited the sharp rise of temporary workers and said the ruling essentially precludes them from forming a union without their employer's permission. They said the board has a "disturbing reluctance to recognize changes in the economy and the workplace."
Today there are about 2.5 million temporary workers in the country, and the greatest increase in jobs in recent months has been through temporary agencies. In September, temp agencies added 33,000 new jobs and in October, 48,000.
The ruling allows temporary workers to organize only if they have both the agency's and the employers' consent.
"It's going to be an almost impossible set of permissions to be met," said Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor issues at the University of California at Berkeley. "I think it is meant to and will discourage organization among temporary workers."
The board's 3-2 vote on Nov. 26 was the third major blow the Republican-dominated board has dealt workers this year. In June, the board voted to eliminate Weingarten rights for workers in nonunion companies, effectively depriving them of the right to have a co-worker present if they are interviewed as part of a disciplinary investigation. In July, the board ruled that graduate teaching assistants at universities are not employees and do not have the right to unionize.
"This trend at the NLRB mocks the original intention of the National Labor Relations Act: to protect bargaining and organizing rights for all workers," said CWA President Morton Bahr. "It undermines the board's whole reason for existence."
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the decisions, "point to an onerous climate in which the board is increasingly siding with employers over workers and denying workers their federally protected rights to form unions." He said they "are part of a dangerous new trend that threatens some of our most fundamental freedoms."
The board's latest decision reversed a 2000 ruling, called M.B. Sturgis, which said that combining permanent workers and temps in the same unit was permissible.
The two dissenting members - appointed by former President Clinton - cited the sharp rise of temporary workers and said the ruling essentially precludes them from forming a union without their employer's permission. They said the board has a "disturbing reluctance to recognize changes in the economy and the workplace."
Today there are about 2.5 million temporary workers in the country, and the greatest increase in jobs in recent months has been through temporary agencies. In September, temp agencies added 33,000 new jobs and in October, 48,000.
The ruling allows temporary workers to organize only if they have both the agency's and the employers' consent.
"It's going to be an almost impossible set of permissions to be met," said Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor issues at the University of California at Berkeley. "I think it is meant to and will discourage organization among temporary workers."