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Protect Workers Rights, the NLRB, and Reform Senate Rules

Resolution: 74A-13-5

Corporate America and anti-worker politicians have been engaged in a 40-year campaign to weaken collective bargaining rights. Their goal is to block our ability to bargain a fair share of the wealth that we produce. Their success has pushed bargaining rights in the private sector below seven percent, making it harder and harder to sustain our standard of living in each round of negotiations.  Meanwhile CEO pay soars and the top one percent now own 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, while the 80 percent of us own just seven percent.

This year corporate America and their political allies have made the five-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charged with overseeing private sector organizing for 85 million unorganized workers and for seven million workers covered by collective bargaining,  impotent by using antiquated Senate rules to prevent the NLRB members from being confirmed.

First, the Senate minority refused to permit any debate on President Obama’s NLRB nominees from 2008 to 2010, leaving the National Labor Relations Board with just two members. As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said last year “I will continue to block all nominations to the NLRB…The NLRB as inoperable could be considered progress.”  

Then, in June 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the two-member NLRB did not have the authority to decide cases. In order to keep the Board functioning, a frustrated President Obama made three recess appointments, two Democrats and one Republican.  In making these “recess appointments,” President Obama followed longstanding precedent. The Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and both Bush administrations made over 300 such recess appointments.

Now, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that those recess appointments were illegal and threatens to reverse all of the decisions they have made.  Already, at least 87 companies – including CNN, Cablevision, Starbucks, and Time Warner – have challenged past NLRB decisions on the basis of the court ruling. The companies are trying to overturn or block union elections, undo penalties awarded to fired workers, and halt subpoenas. An already overwhelmed NLRB faces further backlog and delay.

As a result, 250 CWA-represented technicians illegally terminated by CNN nine years ago will be forced to wait even longer for justice. In 2008, an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ruled that CNN created a phony reorganization solely to get rid of union-represented workers. The ALJ ordered reinstatement, full back pay, and negotiation with NABET-CWA. But implementation of that decision was first delayed by the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Board could not lawfully act with only two Board members. Now these CWA members have been put on hold again.

As the agency responsible for enforcement of our nation’s labor laws, the NLRB’s investigation into the illegal firings of CWA members during the Verizon strike helped CWA negotiators win their reinstatement.  Similarly, regional Board action buttressed the community mobilization that recently won reinstatement for 22 CWA members at Cablevision in Brooklyn NY who were illegally fired for exercising their rights on the job.

Although the current system is seriously flawed and inadequate, Board findings of labor law violations strengthen workers’ ability to counter employers’ campaigns of fear and intimidation in organizing campaigns at T-Mobile and elsewhere. In contract administration and collective bargaining, the NLRB can force employers to provide needed data and engage in serious bargaining.

There is a path to restore an operating NLRB. President Obama has submitted a full package of NLRB nominees to the Senate – three Democrats, two Republicans. The Senate Democratic Majority must move the nominations to the Senate floor. If, as expected, Senate Republicans abuse the Senate rules and filibuster the nominees, Senate Majority Leader Reid must be prepared to confront the filibuster by keeping the Senate in continuous session or use his power as the presiding officer of the Senate to stop obstruction by corporate America and their Republican allies and call the question to a vote.

The NLRB nominees are not the only nominees whose confirmations are blocked by an obstructionist minority. Today there are 26 federal judges awaiting confirmation, including nine judicial emergencies (seats that have been open for a long time with high caseloads) caused by Republican refusal to permit a vote on judges.  The Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has never been confirmed as big banks and their Republican allies filibuster his nomination. The list goes on and on.  

Resolved: Every CWA local, working with others in the labor movement and our allies, will join in a campaign of mobilization, demonstrations, and direct action to demand that the Senate confirm a full package of NLRB nominees.

Resolved: Every CWA local will urge members to “Text NLRB to 49484” in order to build a large rapid response network as part of this and other campaigns.

Resolved: CWA will join with other partners to restore our democracy and change Senate Rules to permit debate and votes on nominations made by the President and eliminate the hostage-taking which undermines government.