Senate Rejects U.S. Chamber-Backed Attack on NLRB Rule Change

The U.S. Senate upheld the very modest changes made by the National Labor Relations Board last year to ensure that workers have fair and timely elections.

Every Democratic Senator, plus Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, voted against the big campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Senate supporters to block even these modest changes in workers' right to organize and bargain collectively.

The Chamber of Commerce also has filed a court challenge to the rule change.

The new rule eliminates some of the stalling tactics that employers use, specifically, filing lawsuits to challenge the eligibility of workers to vote in a representation election. The rule changes postpone such challenges until after the vote.

"The preamble to the National Labor Relations Act actually says its purpose is 'to promote collective bargaining.' The U.S. has fallen far from that standard, and workers' rights are under attack. The U.S. Senate today took a small step in protecting workers' right to organize and bargain collectively by upholding modest rule changes made by the NLRB," CWA President Larry Cohen said.

"Our middle class standard of living has fallen as collective bargaining rights have declined. The United States is now near the bottom among industrialized democracies 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. is widening as workers are unable to bargain to improve their conditions," he added.