NLRB's Browning-Ferris Decision -- Yet Another Administrative Law Abuse

Forbes ^ | September 17, 2015 | George Leef

[reaganaut1]

One of the clearest lessons of the Obama administration is that administrative law can and will be used as a partisan weapon. Of course, that has been done before, but under Obama it has become shockingly common. There is no better example than the way the National Labor Relations Board has tried to reward the president’s allies and hurt his opponents.

Barack Obama was so eager to load up the agency that interprets and enforces federal labor law that he was unanimously slapped down by the Supreme Court in NLRB v. Noel Canning when he tried to redefine what “recess appointment” means to rush his three chosen people onto the Board.

Eventually, Obama got his pro-union picks confirmed and they have been busy doing all they can to assist what’s left of Big Labor in the private sector. Their latest and most egregious decision is Browning-Ferris Industries, which entails a blatant rewriting of the law so as to give unions new leverage and opportunities for “organizing” workers. The majority found its opening for this legal expansion in the meaning of “employer” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Browning-Ferris (BF) contracted with Leadpoint Business Services to provide workers for a variety of tasks involving sorting recycled materials. When Teamsters Local 350 sought to unionize around 120 Leadpoint workers at the BF facility, it sought a ruling from the NLRB as to whether both companies could be considered as employers of those workers, and thus required to bargain with it if the union were to be certified as their representative.

[BenLurkin]

"One of the clearest lessons of the Obama administration is that administrative law can and will be used as a partisan weapon."

Bears repeating.

[mbarker12474]

Hence, a reason to back Scott Walker. Or any candidate who will attempt to disconnect government interaction with unions, especially in the public sector.