Obama’s Job Killing Gift to Big Labor
Trey Kovacs discusses the active NLRB in the waning years of the Obama administration:
The Obama administration rewarded its union allies last month with a decision that threatens millions of jobs and thousands of businesses, from staffing agencies to cleaning services and auto-repair shops to construction companies. In a case involving Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided to unilaterally redefine the concept of joint employment—when more than one business is responsible for an employee or group of employees—and made it easier to unionize large corporations. This ruling could have a devastating effect on small businesses, job creation, and the U.S. economy.
On August 27 the NLRB ruled in favor of the Teamsters union and against BFI, which operates a recycling plant in California that employs 60 individuals directly and contracts with Leadpoint, a temporary staffing agency, to fill 240 composter and sorting positions at the plant. In 2013, Teamsters Local 350 petitioned to be certified as the union representative of both BFI and Leadpoint employees, arguing that both BFI and Leadpoint jointly employed the workers. A NLRB Regional Office, relying on precedent, held that Leadpoint was the sole employer of the plant’s composters and sorters, thereby denying the union the right to organize BFI. The Teamsters appealed.