Two proposed regulations have generated significant controversy because of the dramatic new paperwork and recordkeeping burdens imposed (well over $2 billion per year), without sufficient evidence that they will actually increase employment.
The EEOC said its revisions under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) were only to “conform” the regulations with current Supreme Court interpretations, but nothing could be further from the truth.
It's clear the NLRB is well on its way toward implementing an aggressive pro-union agenda.
Consumers, businesses, and the economy will suffer from the incredible uncertainty created by this political stunt.
Today, the National Labor Relations Board advanced a pro-union rule on ambush elections. From The Hill:
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted Wednesday to move forward with portions of a controversial union election rule after the board’s lone Republican member showed up to registe
Here are portions of the Chamber’s comments in response to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposal to change the interpretation of the “advice” exemption under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), aka the “persuader rule:”
Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce submitted public comments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in response to the Board’s proposal to significantly alter the processes used for holding union representation elections. At a time when all government agencies should be focused on creating
Most employers had probably never considered the interaction of labor law and social media until the NLRB’s general counsel filed a complaint last fall against a Connecticut ambulance services company after it discharged an employee who had made disparaging remarks about her supervisor on Facebo
Organized labor is blaming Congress’ failure to reach agreement on legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration on “effort[s] to overturn a new rule making union elections among rail and airline workers more democratic.”
What they are referring to is a provision included in the H
Two op-eds came out today criticizing the National Labor Relations Board's opposition to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane production line in South Carolina.
In a column appearing in The Daily Caller, Philip Miscimarra, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, reminds
The National Labor Relations Board is holding hearings today and tomorrow on its new proposed rule to shrink the period for union elections to as little as 10 days.
Business groups testified that the rule will tip the balance too much toward unions:
“Quickie elections quite simply can create
Last September, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed substantial revisions to regulations governing flightcrew member duty and rest times. There is no doubt that pilot fatigue is a critically important safety issue, and appropriate regulation is warranted. However, what is so shocking ab
This month, proponents of radical revisions of pay equity laws have planned a number of events designed to generate support for the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1519 / S. 797). The New York Times has chimed in as well with an editorial characterizing last year’s defeat of this same bill as “a disap
Today, the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies held a hearing to consider the NLRB's budget request for FY 2012. While many of the questions from the committee concerned issues with a direct budget impact, many others we
Today, the House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 658) that includes a provision (sec. 903) that would repeal a regulation that the National Mediation Board (NMB) adopted last year. The regulation, adopted at the request of the AFL-CIO, makes union organizing easier in the railroad and airli
A few years ago, we worked hard to craft a compromise with the disability community to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because courts had interpreted the law too narrowly and were excluding more people from protection that Congress had intended. The result was the ADA Amendments Ac
I’ve written numerous times on this blog about the regulatory overreach that the National Mediation Board (NMB) took last year to make it easier for unions to organize the railroad and airline industries.
The law, as written by Congress, clearly requires a support of a majority of a group of empl
One of the major achievements of the Department of Labor under the Bush Administration was significant enhancement of union financial disclosure rules. Organized labor made repeal of these rules among their top priorities during the Obama transition and among the first acts of the new Administratio
And so it begins. The Obama Board has commenced the process that will likely lead to the reversal of a number of important precedents. On August 27, 2010, the last day of Member Schaumber’s term, the Board issued a multitude of decisions, several of which were contentions. Perhaps the most signific
Last week, Human Rights Watch issued a report, A Strange Case: Violations of Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States by European Multinational Corporations, alleging to detail “ways in which some European multinational firms have carried out aggressive campaigns to keep workers in the
By Michael Eastman
According to news reports, this morning, the President will endorse the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182), legislation that would significantly expand the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Among the very significant amendments it would make are:
Making uncapped punitive and compensatory damag
Craig Becker is the first Board Member to have worked for a labor union immediately prior to service on the Board. Many cases involving his former employer, the Service Employees International Union, and its local affiliates are likely to come before the Board while he is a member. Consequently, ma
Last month, the National Labor Relations Board published a request for information (RFI) seeking information related to procuring and implementing “secure electronic voting services for both remote and on-site elections.
While this RFI does not announce a policy change at the Board, it does indicat
Today, the Chamber filed comments on a proposed regulation implementing an Executive Order designed to deter federal contractors from exercising their federally protected free speech rights with respect to union organizing.
The Executive Order seeks to prohibit federal contractors from using funds
The Labor Department has an important issue on its regulatory agenda that, while cast as an issue of transparency, could create a chilling effect on the exercise of employer free speech during union campaigns and create a significant disincentive for employers to seek counsel.
This morning, the Lab
Tomorrow, the National Mediation Board (NMB) will publish new rules making it easier to unionize in the airline and railroad industries.
We’ve discussed the significant substantive and procedural defects in this proposal before, and will have much to say in the coming days after we fully review th
Today, the Administration finalized a regulation strongly encouraging federal agencies to use project labor agreements (PLAs) on large scale federal construction contracts. The regulation is the culmination of a process that began early last year when President Obama signed an executive order order
Yesterday, the Chamber filed comments with the Department of Labor in opposition to the Department's proposed rollback of financial disclosure rules governing union trusts. In 2008, the Labor Department had finalized new rules for union trusts, which include things like training and apprenticeship
Over the weekend, President Obama gave recess appointments to Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to serve as Members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). They will join Current Democratic Chairman Wilma Liebman and Republican Member Peter Schaumber. We’ve written before about the Chamber’s oppos
Scott Brown’s victory in the recent special election in Massachusetts ensures that Democrats cannot end a filibuster without the vote of at least one Republican. However, that isn’t true until Sen.-Elect Brown is sworn in, which may not happen until Feb. 11 (and even that date is not certain).
It
Today the Chamber's Senior Vice President of Immigration, Labor, and Employee Benefits, Randy Johnson, will giving a statement to the National Mediation Board regarding their proposal that will make union organizing in the airline and railroad industries easier -- background here, here, here, and h
Today, the National Mediation Board (NMB) published a proposal that will make union organizing in the airline and railroad industries easier. We’ve discussed the substance of this proposal before (three links) and will do so again, but what should really catch people’s attention here is the flawed
Earlier today, a coalition of 28 business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions asking for a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board. As stated in the let
by Mike Eastman Today, the Department of Labor completed its first regulatory action to decrease transparency in union financial disclosure.
Late in the last Administration, the Labor Department sought additional measures to ensure that labor organizations complied with financial disclosure obligati
There was a good editorial in the Wall Street Journal today that analyzed organized labor’s newest plan to make union organizing easier in the airline and railroad industries:
No trucks from Mexico, no new trade agreements, a sweet deal for the United Auto Workers at GM and Chrysler, tariffs on Ch
While most people have heard of organized labor’s high profile attempt to make union organizing easier under the National Labor Relations Act (which covers most private sector workers) by effectively doing away with secret ballot elections, their effort to ease union organizing rules for those in t
While most of the public policy debate over labor policy issues has been focused on organized labor’s top priority, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the Labor Department and other agencies in the Administration have begun the process of promulgating pro-union regulations. Thus far, the Administ
Over the last 6 years, the Labor Department took several important steps to improve the financial disclosure rules that apply to labor unions. The newest round of improvements was finalized in January and was set to be implemented early this year. However, one of the first acts of the new administr
by Mike Eastman
The campaign to enact the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is based on two principal arguments: the first being that the National Labor Relations Board is biased against unions and the second being that employers are inherently evil.
We aren’t hearing so much of the first a
Union leaders have made much about how passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would increase union membership. SEIU President Andy Stern has estimated that passing EFCA would lead to 1.5 million new members per year for the next 10 years. Finally, we have an economic study that explains wha
Last week the Center for American Progress came out with a report attempting to justify support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) based on the alleged failure of wages to keep pace with productivity gains. This is the same argument that has been raised in the past by groups such as the Economi
The poor success rate of plaintiffs in employment discrimination lawsuits was the subject of an article in today’s Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, we can expect to see the low success rate used by some to justify radical expansion of equal employment opportunity laws. However, there are many re
A new study by University of Chicago Professor Richard A. Epstein, The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act, was released today. The 125-page study (PDF), to be published by The Hoover Institute at Stanford University, is an extensive analysis and critique of the legislation.
Professor Epstei
Earlier this month (before the end of President Bush’s term), the Labor Department released a report called An Analysis of the Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women – it was prepared by a contractor, the CONSAD Research Corporation and included a forward written by the Labor Depa
Today we received word of a new campaign targeting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for opposition to two "federal pay equity reforms." Included among the materials prepared by a project styling itself "Out of the Way of Fair Pay" is a video playing off a 1974 public service announcement on equal pay f
This week, while the House of Representatives and Senate are meeting in lame duck session, they are also holding meetings to organize for the 111th Congress. There has been much written about some high profile decisions that lawmakers must make, including whether or not to strip Sen. Joe Lieberman
If you listen to the political commercials, Lilly Ledbetter was an unfortunate and unknowing victim of discrimination. According to her, the Supreme Court and now Congress have denied her day in court.However, she had her day in court. If you look at the court decisions, and her testimony before th
Today, the U.S. Senate passed the ADA Amendments Act, S. 3406, legislation that would amend the Americans with Disabilities Act to reverse court decisions that have interpreted the ADA’s definition of disability too narrowly. This bill embodies a compromise reached between the business community a
Tomorrow, the House Education and Labor Committee is scheduled to consider the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338), legislation that would radically amend the Equal Pay Act and other laws nondiscrimination laws.
Federal law already provides strong protections against sex discrimination under Title V
by Mike EastmanThe Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990 with broad bipartisan support, including significant support from the business community. Unfortunately, the law has been interpreted too narrowly by the federal courts, excluding some people from coverage who Congress clea
The secret ballot is cherished by most Americans as a cornerstone of democracy. It has served well to protect voter privacy and to help ensure that decisions in elections are made free from coercion and intimidation. Secret ballot elections have been an important part of how workers decide whether
Today, the Senate is expected to consider a bill (H.R. 2831) that will effectively eliminate the statute of limitations for many types of discrimination claims and permit plaintiffs to sleep on their rights for decades before filing "gotcha" lawsuits against employers.
The bill is an overreaction t
Today, a story in The Hill discussed recent polling by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace:A coalition of business groups is pressing a new poll that concludes Sens. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) could be boosted by their votes last year against the Employee Free Choice Ac
Yesterday, the International Labor Organization issued a decision vindicating a 2006 decision by the National Labor Relations Board in Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. The ILO’s decision stems from a complaint filed by the AFL-CIO that sought to have the NLRB decision condemned and for the ILO to call for
Some proponents of the card check bill have argued that it would not deprive workers of a secret ballot election. This argument is based on the fact that the card check bill does not repeal the election provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). However, even though the election provi
The New York Times ran an editorial yesterday (A Hopeful Year for Unions) urging Congress to pass card check legislation that would strip employees of the ability to decide, in a government-supervised private ballot election, whether or not their workplace should be unionized. We don’t question th
Today the House Committee on Education and Labor is scheduled to hold a legislative hearing on H.R. 3195, the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Restoration Act. The Chamber strongly opposes this bill.
Proponents of this bill argue that some courts have interpreted the ADA so narrowly that some peo
On Friday, the White House announced that it is nominating individuals to fill the three vacant seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). These individuals include: former NLRB Chairman Robert Batista, former NLRB Member Dennis Walsh, and Gerald Morales, currently a labor and employment
This weekend, the Cincinnati Enquirer ran an interesting story about union organizing at Toyota that touched on one ploy organized labor uses as part of its corporate campaigns against employers – holding mock “hearings” to attract press coverage and spread misinformation about the company. As rep
