NLRB Rulings Are Gift to Unions, Blow to Economy

Washington, D.C., August 31, 2011 — Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handed down three pro-union rulings that will have significant consequences for American employers. In one ruling, the Board held that unions may organize departments of a business without organizing the business as a whole. Another ruling forces workers who are unhappy with a union to wait longer to decertify the union. In the third ruling, the NLRB made it more difficult to challenge a union’s status in a company that changes ownership via merger.

The timing of the rulings was rushed to pre-empt the term end of the board’s chairwoman, Wilma B. Liebman, who steps down on Sunday.

CEI Labor Policy Analyst Ivan Osorio said, “The Obama administration seems to be throwing every pro-union measure at the wall to see what sticks, in order to give union bosses something — anything — to keep them on board for the 2012 elections. Having failed to get card check through Congress, the administration has turned to the NLRB to enact pro-Big Labor policy changes. This week’s NLRB trifecta is of a piece with the Board’s targeting of Boeing for opening a plant in South Carolina, a right to work state, and its support of shortened election periods and remote electronic voting (“e-card check”). Unfortunately for America’s economy and workers, this only increases businesses’ regulatory burden and creates further uncertainty, deterring investment and stifling job creation.”