NLRB Cases Put Millions at Risk of Losing Union Rights

Union members turned out in force across the country this week to draw attention to three pending National Labor Relations Board cases that could leave millions of workers without union rights by redefining who can be labeled a "supervisor" in a workplace.

In Washington, D.C., area CWA members were among hundreds of union activists who rallied Thursday in front of NLRB headquarters. Rallies also took place this week in Nashville, Portland, Ore., Phoenix, Chicago, Milwaukee, Albuquerque and other locations.

The NLRB cases, known collectively as the "Kentucky River" cases, began with groups of nurses trying to organize in Kentucky. Management has tried to claim they are supervisors and therefore ineligible for union rights.

In 2001, the Supreme Court sent their case back to the NLRB, telling the board to clarify which workers should be considered supervisors. The board, with its anti-labor majority appointed by President Bush, could issue a ruling this summer. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other employer groups are eagerly anticipating a victory for their side.

The Economic Policy Institute, in a new report titled, "Supervisor in Name Only," has identified 35 occupations in each of which 50,000 workers or more could lose their union rights. Totaling more than 8 million workers across the country, they include 843,000 registered nurses, 152,000 electricians, 77,000 mechanics and 70,000 pharmacists.

"Skilled and experienced workers such as registered nurses, who give instructions to co-workers about how and when to perform certain tasks, are particularly vulnerable to reclassification as supervisors under this push for a broader reinterpretation of the term," EPI says. "For example, nurses who tell orderlies or nurse aides to do certain things for particular patients are at high risk of reclassification, as are journeymen construction workers who guide other workers on a crew."

Despite requests from unions, the NLRB has refused to hear oral arguments on the cases. At a protest in Nashville, AFL-CIO Organizing Director Steward Acuff said it is "outrageous that the NLRB would consider deciding to disenfranchise millions of people and not hear from the workers most affected."

The Washington, D.C., rally drew a crowd that included NLRB member Wilma Liebman, one of two Democrats on the five-member board.

For more details about the cases and rallies, go to www.alfcio.org.  To read the EPI report, go to www.epinet.org.