House Passage of Anti-NLRB Bill Part of Larger GOP Shell Game to Gut Worker Protections

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) strongly condemned the passage of H.R. 1120, Preventing Greater Uncertainty in Labor-Management Relations Act, in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation is the latest example of an all-out assault by many Republicans on the NLRB and on basic worker protections. While 10 Republicans stood up for workers’ basic protections and voted “no” on H.R. 1120, the vast majority of Republican members of Congress voted for the bill’s passage.

The bill would “prohibit the National Labor Relations Board from taking any action that requires a quorum of the members of the Board until such time as Board constituting a quorum shall have been confirmed by the Senate.” However, the Senate-approved quorum that would be required by H.R. 1120 has been next-to-impossible to fill, thanks to Senate Republicans’ bottling up and blocking nominations through unceasing Senate filibusters and holds.

“Today’s vote is just another reminder of how many Republicans are engaged in a coordinated and sustained assault on the NLRB and basic worker protections,” said Shane Larson, Legislative Director at Communication Workers of America. “While the House bill should be dead on arrival in the Senate, so to should the Senate Republican strategy to obstruct nominees and derail the basic protections to workers offered by a fully functional NLRB.”

Earlier this week, President Obama announced three nominees for full terms at the NLRB, helping to raise the stakes and add visibility to the set of interconnected issues. As George Kohl, Senior Director at CWA, told Huffington Post: "There's no legitimate public case not to go ahead and confirm all of them … It's a matter of clearing up the uncertainty and moving forward, rather than creating more in obstruction."

The Washington Post also highlighted a CWA memo connecting the dots regarding the Republicans’ anti-NLRB assault. CWA legislative director Shane Larson said to the Post that labor foes "don't have the votes to repeal the National Labor Relations Act, so they're abusing the Senate rules to make sure there's not a functioning board…But we're hopeful that when the nominations make it to the Senate floor, enough Republican senators will join Democrats in voting for cloture so the NLRB can function."

On Wednesday, the White House issued an official Statement of Administration Policy that threatened a veto of H.R. 1120 should it reach the President’s desk: “The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 1120, which would prohibit members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) duly appointed by the President from taking any action. This legislation hurts middle class and working families, weakens the economy and undermines America's economic competitiveness. If the President is presented with legislation that would undermine the functions of the National Labor Relations Board, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”

Members of Congress also weighed in on the passage of H.R. 1120. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) blasted the legislation as a step towards completely dismantling the rights of working Americans: “It seems there are no limits that some will go to deny hardworking Americans with the rights and protections they are legally entitled to,” Pocan said. “By effectively dissolving the NLRB, this bill would lead to unnecessary chaos by severely damaging labor relations and creating further uncertainty for both employees and employers. Without a legal avenue for workers to pursue, employers could be emboldened to ignore existing regulations, and worker strikes could become more prevalent since unions would be left with no other recourse. We need to be working on commonsense initiatives to get Americans back to work, not wasting time on politically driven bills that deny our workers the economic security they deserve.”

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