NLRB December Rulings Further Erode Rights of Workers

Once again President Obama’s illegitimate recess appointees took matters into their own hands in order to resuscitate Big Labor’s Gasping Dinosaurs by priming the union money pump at the expense of the union members themselves. The President’s re-election has emboldened the Rogue NLRB  agenda to achieve card check (see Card Check through Regulation vs. Legislation). Despite the fact Obama and NLRB Continue to Cost Union Jobs, Americans and the union rank and file members remain oblivious to the fact that Big Labor bosses and the President do not care about them. They only care about the money that can be stolen from members’ dues to save the Gasping Dinosaurs and further the political aspirations of the President and the liberal left.

The most recent advances by the NLRB towards Card Check come as America is distracted by the “fiscal cliff” debate, and during the waning days of a recessed lame duck Congress. The NLRB has a history of waiting until moments of distraction to do this damage, such as regulation changes the NLRB attempted to sneak in last year about this time, which directly targeted employers, as reported in The Cold War Within: The Fight for America’s Future. This year The NLRB’s Union Bonus is another sneak attack this time on the very employees it is supposed to protect and defend equally and without bias from both Big Labor and employers.

First, the NLRB voted 3-1, with republican legal appointee Brian Hayes being the sole dissenting vote, to gut protection for workers who don’t want their dues money spent on politics. Evidently this is in response to Right to Work (RTW) gains in the states of Indiana and Michigan in 2012 (see Once Again, Big Labor Bosses Demonstrate Why RTW is Necessary – Shame on Them.) and legal challenges by union members such as SEIU member “Mariam the Mighty” and U.A.W. member Terry Bowman, who’s stories are detailed in The Devil at Our Doorstep and recent blog Employees Push Back Against SEIU’s Persuasion of Power. Obviously, big labor realizes that the growing RTW trend is decimating its membership roles and ultimately its revenues.

While it continues its push to obtain card check, Big Labor must have a stop-gap means of maintaining revenues. The NLRB just handed it to them. This decision allows Big Labor to continue to utilize dues to elect officials like the President who will work to preserve public unions, provide sweetheart collective bargaining agreements and make Card Check a reality. Union members who are supposed to be the beneficiary of their dues contributions to the Big Labor bosses in the form of better benefits instead have become contributors to causes they may not support.

Second, in a decision released this week, WKYC-TV, 359 NLRB No. 30 (2012), the NLRB struck down 50 years of precedent by reversing Bethlehem Steel, 136 NLRB 1500 (1962), a decision related to the dues “check off” provision commonly present in collective bargaining agreements. In short, by its decision the Board requires employers to continue to deduct union dues from employees who are on strike so the union can use the money against the employer during the strike to pressure the employer to capitulate. Additionally, the employees are short changed as in many cases the employees strike pay is lees than their normal pay. The only winner is the Big Labor union bosses who continue their standard of living and maintain their political clout while the rank and file members subsidize them.

None of this is surprising as the night before the presidential election AFL-CIO President Richard Trumpka made it clear that Unions Demand Payback: Card Check is Back on the Table. The President and his illegitimate NLRB appointees are now attempting to make it reality. In addition to these stop gap measures to keep the Big Labor bosses funded, the Chair of the NLRB is considering a rule to require employers to provide employee phone numbers to unions during an election, submit to a new Posting Rule, and institute “Quickie Elections” . These actions are all designed to promote Corporate Campaigns: Vehicle to Forced Unionism and Political Payback, and to achieve Card Check a.k.a. EFCA Through the Backdoor. These campaigns also referred to as Death by a Thousand Cuts  are in reality A Death Penalty for Employees and Employers . The President and his Big Labor cronies succinctly understand the premise Control Business, Control the Country. All Americans need to wake up and understand the objective of Obama’s Rule by Fiat is The Taking of American Freedoms.

David A. Bego is the President and CEO of EMS, an industry leader in the field of environmental workplace maintenance, employing nearly 5000 workers in thirty-three states. Bego is the author of “The Devil at My Doorstep,” as well as the just released sequel, “The Devil at Our Doorstep,” based on his experiences fighting back against one of the most powerful unions in existence today.