House GOP unveils two more anti-NLRB, anti-union bills

WASHINGTON – The radical right GOP majority on the House Education and the Workforce Committee continued its anti-National Labor Relations Board, anti-worker, and anti-union crusade on June 13 with two more pieces of legislation: One to ban formation of what it claims are “micro-unions” within companies, and the other, recycled, to outlaw majority sign-up, also known as card check recognition.

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., unveiled the bill banning the possibility of multiple union units within the same plant. Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., dropped the card check ban in the hopper. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., also introduced the anti-micro-union bill there, but his bill is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-run Senate. The House panel will hold a hearing on both bills on June 26.

The Republicans allege the board used a routine case, Specialty Healthcare, in 2011 to “ensure the NLRB approves virtually every unit of employees handpicked by the union – no matter how small the group may be. As a result, union bosses are empowered to gerrymander workplaces and ‘micro-unions’ will proliferate.”

Roe’s bill banning majority signup, which the board legalized in 1962, would leave only secret ballot votes – and time for rampant employer intimidation, illegal firings, and other labor law-breaking beforehand – as the way for unions to win recognition.

Majority signup lets a firm voluntarily recognize the union only after the union shows it has representation election demand cards from a majority of workers involved. The firm does not have to recognize the union, but can demand an election instead.

In the last Congress, the GOP-run House approved the anti-majority signup bill, but it died in the Senate. “The last thing workers need is special interests and government bureaucrats advancing policies that create division in workplaces and undermine their fundamental freedoms,” committee chairman John Kline, R-Minn., alleged.

Photo: AP