CWA Urges Speedy Confirmation of NLRB Nominees

WASHINGTON, DC — The Communications Workers of America is urging the Senate to swiftly vote President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board nominees out of committee and seat them as soon as possible, so that workers have the full protection of the nation’s labor law.

“Workers can’t afford to wait any longer,” said CWA President Larry Cohen. “For 80 million Americans in the private sector, it’s all they have. The NLRB is the only agency that safeguards employees’ right to organize and negotiate, and it’s the only agency that can stop and remedy injustices in the workplace. Partisan warfare has obscured what’s really at stake here.”

Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will vote on the package of nominees — three Democrats and two Republicans.

This full five-member, bipartisan NLRB is urgently needed. At present, two of the five seats on the Board are vacant, and the term of one of the three current Board members, Chairman Mark Pearce, will expire in August. 

Employers are using recent Appeals Court decisions to challenge Board rulings based on the recess appointment status of the other two Board members, and many cases are being put on hold. Workers who have been illegally fired have no recourse. Union elections are being disregarded. And investigations on a wide range of unfair labor practices, from violations of free speech to discrimination, have stalled.

The livelihoods of working Americans hang in the balance. For example:

• Tyrone Riggs worked 14 years as a field engineer at CNN. He and 110 other technicians were fired after CNN launched a phony reorganization scheme to get rid of workers because they had a union, NABET-CWA. The NLRB investigated and ordered CNN to reinstate Tyrone and his coworkers, restore full back pay and bargain with the union. But the network ignored the decision, challenging the NLRB’s legal authority. A decade has passed since technicians lost their jobs, and Tyrone has been forced to take minimum-wage jobs with zero health insurance. He has fallen into debt, lost his home and filed for bankruptcy.
  
  
• Marcus Hedger worked for Fort Dearborn Co. for nine years, serving as a GCIU-IBT union steward. New owners of the company cracked down hard on him for his union activity and fired him. A unanimous bipartisan panel of the NLRB ruled that his firing was illegal and ordered his employer to give him his job back— but the company has been able to avoid reinstating Marcus because the case is on hold in the DC Circuit Court. Marcus eventually found work, but at lower pay. Still waiting for justice, Marcus has lost his home.
  
  
• Lorie Halter is a nurse at Memorial Hospital of Salem County. She and other nurses organized a union at the hospital to gain a voice that could lead to better patient care. In a union election, the nurses voted overwhelmingly to join HPAE, but the hospital’s owner has refused to recognize the election results. The nurses went to the NLRB and won, but the owner has appealed the decision. Three years have passed since their successful union election vote, but Salem’s nurses still face concerns over safe staffing, proper training and adequate supplies.

 Tyrone, Marcus and Lorie deserve justice. They deserve a fully-functioning, bipartisan NLRB.

 Visit www.GiveUs5NLRB.org for more information.

Contact: Candice Johnson or Kendra Marr Chaikind, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, cjohnson@cwa-union.org and kmarr@cwa-union.org