The Bush NLRB

An excellent post from Common Dreams about worrying goings-on at the NLRB:

Help Labor Stop Bush NLRB Assault on Workers' Rights
by Stewart Acuff and Sheldon Friedman

The last thing America's workers need is another economic kick in the groin, but the Bush labor board may soon deliver what could be its lowest blow yet. The Bush National Labor Relations Board is easily the most anti-worker labor board in history and has lost few opportunities to turn back the clock on workers' rights, but even against this sorry backdrop, the scope of what they now are contemplating is breathtaking.

In a series of pending cases known as Kentucky River, the Bush board could strip what remains of federal labor law protections from hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of workers whose jobs include even minor, incidental or occasional supervisory duties. The pending cases involve charge nurses in a hospital and a nursing home and lead workers in a manufacturing plant, but these workers could be just the tip of the iceberg.

The AFL-CIO and its affiliates will not stand idly by in the face of this unfolding workers' rights atrocity. We have declared a national week of action starting July 10 to protest against the Bush labor board at NLRB headquarters in Washington and at regional NLRB offices and other sites around the country. Members of Congress have been asked to urge the NLRB to permit oral arguments by workers who will be adversely affected by the pending decisions. This is the least the board can do before ruling in a matter of such importance, but so far Bush-appointed Chairman Battista shows every indication that he will deny even this modest request to allow these workers to be heard. [cont'd]