WASHINGTON—If this week’s comments by members of the Supreme Court right-wing majority supporting the idea of a “unitary executive” were not enough to convince people that they were out to kill workers rights, their decision not to hear a lawsuit by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and the AFL-CIO against Elon Musk that would protect the National Labor Relations Board should make the jurists’ intentions perfectly clear.
The Court decided to not even labor organizations to make their case, and that means trouble for workers nationwide, because OPEIU and the AFL-CIO sought to defend the National Labor Relations Board against the attempt by Musk and other billionaires, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, to declare the board unconstitutional.
That leaves the NLRB defenseless. The union, backed by the AFL-CIO, tried to step in to defend the board when President Donald Trump’s Justice Department predictably would not. And on Dec. 8, without comment, the justices, in SpaceX vs. NLRB, turned the unions down, declaring they won’t let the labor groups argue the case.
OPEIU “is extremely disappointed in the Court’s refusal to review a Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in the SpaceX v NLRB case,” the union told People’s World.
“The court denied OPEIU the ability to defend the National Labor Relations Board’s authority and to protect workers’ ability to seek justice for labor law violations with the agency.” OPEIU added the High Court’s ruling, without comment, is part of a trend from Trump’s regime and the Court.
“One by one, the rights of working people are being stripped away, and agencies set up to enforce labor law for all are refusing to hold employers accountable when those rights are violated.
“OPEIU members were counting on the Supreme Court to stand up for the NLRB and its authority, but once again, the rights of workers are taking a back seat to the rights of greedy union-busting employers like Elon Musk.”
The David vs. Goliath battle loomed in November after Musk and his allies, including other billionaires and corporate interests, won a lower court ruling against the NLRB from a right-wing Republican federal judge in Texas. That judge declared the structure of the NLRB, and by extension the board itself, violated the Constitution.
That judge agreed with the moguls that the Constitution bans the labor board’s administrative law judges from investigating evidence, deciding guilt or innocence in unfair labor practices cases, and imposing penalties.
Only regular judges in federal courts, named by the president and approved by the Senate, can conduct trials and impose penalties, the Texas judge ruled.
The practical effect of the judge’s decision was to free corporations from NLRB oversight and rulings, letting them exploit workers and break labor law in their quest for profits.
That’s what Musk’s firm SpaceX did. That’s also what another smaller, non-profit organization in Texas did in trying to stop OPEIU’s organizing drive. The Fifth Circuit appellate judges rolled the OPEIU case, the SpaceX case, and a third case—all challenging the constitutionality of the labor board—together.
Then that appeals court panel, in one of the most conservative courts in the country, backed the lower court judge and handed Musk and his allies a win, after the Justice Department failed to defend the NLRB.
OPEIU took up the battle, armed with the law setting up the NLRB. But OPEIU never got a chance to make its case.
That leaves Musk, the multibillionaire, and his right-wing corporate allies, victorious on the battlefield without a legal fight. And workers and the NLRB are the losers.
“While disappointed, we are not discouraged. OPEIU will keep fighting to protect its members and defend the rights of all working people. We won’t back down in our efforts to ensure workers’ rights continue to be vindicated by the NLRB,” the Office and Professional Employees vowed.
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