|
 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a government agency that was
established in the 1930s to enforce the National Labor Relations Act. Throughout
its history, the NLRB has served as a neutral referee between management and
labor in America’s workplaces.
It appears the board’s current General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo wants to expand
the agency’s role in ways that could negatively affect Arizona’s building
community and its workers.
One example. Abruzzo has asked the board to throw out the current vehicle for
organizing a workplace – election by secret ballot – and replace it with a
process called card check. Under Abruzzo’s proposal, workers would no longer
have the right to vote in private as to whether to form a union. Instead, they
would be urged by union organizers to sign union authorization cards in public,
in front of their coworkers and union reps.
This is not the only attempt by the NLRB to upend federal labor law through
bureaucratic decree.
What is going on here?
Recall when President Joe Biden said, “You know, you’ve heard me say many times:
I intend to be the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union
administration in American history.”
That was a bold statement that has come up short, considering the centerpiece of
the Big Labor agenda, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, cannot
earn enough support to get out of the U.S. Senate. We are very thankful to our
Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly for wisely declining to cosponsor
the bill.
With the PRO Act stuck in the mud, it appears that the NLRB’s aggressive
administrative actions are part of a fail-safe strategy: What they can’t
implement through legislation, they will impose through regulation.
[to top of second column] |
After all, imposing card check on American work spaces was a major component of
the PRO Act. As was the complete nullification of right-to-work laws in 27
sovereign states. Right-to-work protects workers from being forced to join a
union or pay union dues as a condition of their employment. Under the PRO Act,
workers would lose that right.
They would also lose a good deal of their personal privacy. A provision within
the PRO Act requires employers to hand over private worker information to union
organizers without worker consent. This would put home addresses and personal
cell phone numbers into the hands of aggressive union reps, leaving workers
vulnerable to possible threats and intimidation.
During the North American Building Trades Unions conference in April, the
president whispered into the microphone, “by the way, Amazon here we come,” as
the Big Labor crowd cheered on. Around that time the NLRB started formulating
complaints against Amazon, Starbucks, and other large employers, to the
advantage of labor unions looking to organize those companies’ workers.
It seems clear that efforts to deliberately circumvent Congress on this issue
are under way, forcing it upon our country’s employers and workers without the
hassle of passing a bill.
Congress should be angry at the effrontery. Let’s hope they reign in the NLRB
and its newly devised rogue policies.
Tom Dunn is president of Arizona Builders Alliance, which is an
alliance of the Arizona Chapters of the Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC),
and the Associated General Contractors of America – Building Chapter (AGC). They
represent over 300 member companies, including contractors and professional
service firms, and serve the needs of the commercial & industrial construction
industry.
|
