NLRB 'Ignores' Rules To Rush Union Elections

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 11/30/2011 | Jack Spencer

[MichCapCon]

With a 2-1 labor-friendly advantage, the National Labor Relations Board is poised to speed up the union election process, but to do so it would have to bend its own rules.

According to precedent, the NLRB requires at least three “yes” votes to make changes, such as those proposed for the elections. But it plans to adopt the regulations with just two “yes” votes, anyway in a meeting scheduled for Nov. 30.

At full force, the NLRB is comprised of five members. Due to wrangling between President Barack Obama and Congress, it currently has only three members. They are: Craig Becker, associate general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Mark Gaston Pearce, NLRB chairman; and Brian Hayes, Republican labor policy director for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. All three are Obama appointees.

Hayes is expected to vote “no” on the changes while Becker and Pearce are expected to vote “yes.” Passing the new rules with only two affirmative votes would be a break with the way the NLRB has always operated. However, that doesn't seem to be considered an obstacle.

[molson209]

rules , we don’t need no stinking rules

[I am Richard Brandon]

I am Soooooooooo glad that we are a Nation of Laws ruled by a king an administration that respects them!