NLRB Rules Changes are First Step To Ending Unnecessary Delay

Contact: Candice Johnson or Chuck Porcari, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, cjohnson@cwa-union.org and cporcari@cwa-union.org

Washington, D.C. -- Workers at T-Mobile USA and nearly every other company know firsthand how U.S. corporations use delay to keep workers from making a fair choice about union representation. The changes proposed by the National Labor Relations Board are a first and modest step toward ending some of that delay, the Communications Workers of America said.  

“The preamble to the National Labor Relations Act actually says its purpose is ‘to promote collective bargaining.’ As workers at T-Mobile USA in New York and Connecticut can confirm, we’ve fallen a long way from that. Today, we have corporations proclaiming that management ‘free speech’ rights can overrun workers’ rights every time,” said CWA President Larry Cohen. 

“These same corporations want free trade deals so they can compete in the global economy.  Yet they are aware that when they operate elsewhere, these corporations must respect the bargaining and organizing rights that their U.S. management attacks every day.   

“The outcome: our middle class standard of living has fallen as collective bargaining rights have declined. The United States is now near the bottom, with Colombia, in bargaining and organizing coverage.  U.S. income inequality is the worst in 100 years. The gap between wages and productivity in the U.S. widens as workers are not able to bargain. The end result is an economic slowdown that will not end,” Cohen said.

The NLRB’s proposed changes don’t address this kind of corporate behavior.

But the NLRB has taken a step toward reducing some of the delay that drags out the election process for months and even years, CWA said.

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