NLRB Doubles in Size, Thanks to Recess Appointments by Obama

President Obama took a stand against obstructionist tactics in the Senate this Saturday, making 15 recess appointments--that is to say, filling key administration posts on a temporary basis without confirmation by the full Senate.

This is great news for the National Labor Relations Board, which saw its membership double from two to four. One more member and we'd have a full board. This is a significant step toward having a functioning NLRB that doesn't elicit quite so many frustrated blog posts.

So how come the President went over the Senate's head to make these appointments? Could it have something to do with the fact that the Senate has blocked over 200 critical nominations since the beginning of 2008, leaving our federal government severely understaffed during the worst economic crisis in over half a century?

Well, actually, according to the White House Blog, yes:

"While the President respects the critical role the Senate plays in the appointment process, he was no longer willing to let another month go by with key economic positions unfilled, especially at a time when our country is recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

[...]

"The roadblocks we’ve seen in the Senate have left some government agencies like the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission impaired in fulfilling their mission. These agencies can now get back to working for the American people."

Impaired! That's the word we've been searching for. And to put it all in context, the Congressional Research Service tells us that President George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments throughout his time in office (that's an average of 21 per year!), while President Clinton made 139.

And now, without further ado, your newest NLRB members are ...

Craig Becker: Becker currently serves as Associate General Counsel to both the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College in 1978 and received his J.D. in 1981 from Yale Law School where he was an Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school he clerked for the Honorable Donald P. Lay, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. For the past 27 years, he has practiced and taught labor law. He was a Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law between 1989 and 1994 and has also taught at the University of Chicago and Georgetown Law Schools. He has published numerous articles on labor and employment law in scholarly journals, including the Harvard Law Review and Chicago Law Review, and has argued labor and employment cases in virtually every federal court of appeals and before the United States Supreme Court.

Mark Pearce: Pearce has been a labor lawyer for his entire career. He is one of the founding partners of the Buffalo, New York law firm of Creighton, Pearce, Johnsen & Giroux where he practices union side labor and employment law before state and federal courts and agencies including the N.Y.S. Public Employment Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board. Pearce in 2008 was appointed by the NYS Governor to serve as a Board Member on the New York State Industrial Board of Appeals, an independent quasi-judicial agency responsible for review of certain rulings and compliance orders of the NYS Department of Labor in matters including wage and hour law. Pearce has taught several courses in the labor studies program at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations Extension. He is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Prior to 2002, Pearce practiced union side labor law and employment law at Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria LLP. From 1979 to 1994, he was an attorney and District Trial Specialist for the NLRB in Buffalo, NY. Pearce received his J.D. from State University of New York, and his B.A. from Cornell University.

(Bios courtesy of the White House Press Office)

What just happened?! Reform-o-rama edition

Let's recap this crazy/awesome week:

• At an emotional, and at times raucus, signing ceremony, President Obama made a health care reform bill passed by the Senate in December and by the House of Representatives late Sunday night into law.


• Both houses of Congress also approved a budget reconciliation bill that contains some important fixes to the original health care bill. The President is expected to sign that bill soon.


• Also in the reconciliation bill was an overhaul of the federal student loan program that hugely expands the Pell grant program, helps lower-income graduates struggling with debt, and saves billions of dollars by taking private banks out of the equation, redirecting most of that money to new education initiatives.


• Speaker Nancy Pelosi has earned a lot of praise for her role in passing these landmark reforms. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's job description just got a little meatier.


• Some House Democrats are facing violent threats after supporting health care reform.


• The Nation's profile of Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and the team she's assembled at the Department of Labor is pretty flattering, but it also sheds some light on the ways in which the agency was allowed to fall into dysfunction under the previous administration.


• Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd's financial regulatory reform bill passed the Senate Banking Committee this week, and Dodd (the Committee's chair) plans to bring it to the Senate floor for a full vote in April.


• The White House is launching a new offensive against the foreclosure crisis, planning broad new initiatives to help stuggling homeowners, including elements aimed at reducing payments for unemployed Americans looking for work, and a program to refinance loans for homeowners who owe more than what their houses are worth.


• No matter how much reforming we do, some things never change. People are still interested in Tiger Woods.

Permanent Replacement Workers: A Primer

With yesterday's announcement that Shaw's Supermarkets has begun hiring permanent replacements for about 300 UFCW members on strike at its Methuen distribution center, now seems like an appropriate time to take a look at what this really means.

The basics:

• The difference between hiring temporary replacement workers and permanent replacement workers is that permanent replacement workers get to keep the union jobs even after a strike ends.
• The Supreme Court ruled that hiring permanent replacement workers was legal in the 1938 NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co case.
• For more than 40 years after the Mackay decision, no major U.S. industry hired permanent replacements during a labor strike.

Past use of permanent replacement workers:

• In 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired more than 12,000 unionized air traffic controllers who had gone out on strike after unsuccessful contract negotiations. President Reagan claimed that because the air traffic controllers were government employees, their strike was illegal. The FAA hired permanent replacement workers, and President Reagan banned the fired workers from ever being rehired by the FAA - a prohibition that stood until President Bill Clinton overturned it in 1993.
• In 1987, the International Paper Company in Maine hired more than a thousand replacement workers, and kept them employed even after the 2,300 striking workers ended their 16-month long strike.
• In 1990, Greyhound replaced 6,300 bus drivers who had gone on strike after their contract expired.
• In 1994, about 1,250 workers at Bridgestone/Firestone embarked on a 10 month-long strike; by the time the strike had ended and a new contract had been reached, it was 1996, and the company had hired at least 900 permanent replacement workers.

What's different with Shaw's?

• Unlike the 1981 air traffic controllers strike, the legality of the Methuen strike is not at issue.
• The number of workers on strike at the Methuen distribution center seems relatively small compared to past conflicts that have triggered the use of permanent replacement workers.
• Shaw's workers have only been out on strike for a few weeks.

Reform = Reality

This morning we woke up in a country with a more fair, equitable, and fiscally sensible health care system. Yes we did! And in case all the excitement over Joe Biden drove you to distraction, here are some of the most exciting changes you can look forward to in the next six months:

• If you are refused health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, you can get coverage through a new government-run high-risk pool.

• Children can stay on their parents’ insurance longer – until they are 26 years old.

• Senior citizens will get a $250 rebate for prescription drugs – the first step to closing the “donut hole” in Medicare drug coverage.

• Small businesses get significant tax credits for providing health insurance to their employees.

Not bad for a hump day!

A lot of young recessionistas are particularly excited about the prospect of staying on their parents' insurance plans for a few more years. But some people out there are still wondering: if a 21 year old has already been kicked off her parents' insurance, say, when she graduated from college, can she go back on in six months? The New York Times provides answers!

So tell us, what's your favorite provision of the health care bill? Which parts of it are you still curious about?

What a Weekend!

• The House passed the Senate's health care reform bill and sent it to the President for his signature. They also passed a package of changes to the bill, which the Senate will vote on soon, maybe this week.


• Health care reform wasn't the only public policy matter on Washington's mind yesterday; over on the National Mall, UFCW members were among the 200,000 marching for immediate action on immigration reform.


• The FDA announced a major recall of products flavored with hydrolyzed vegetable protein made by Basic Food Flavors. The HVP is in a ton of popular snack foods and condiments, but the good news is, there is a searchable database of the products are being recalled.


• This year is putting the 'madness' in March Madness. If you're bracket is obliterated, you're not alone.

FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LAUD PASSAGE OF SWEEPING HEALTH CARE REFORMS

Statement by Joe Hansen, President of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW)

Washington DC— Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed health care reforms that will better serve all Americans. Thanks to the commitment of President Obama and Democratic Members of Congress, we now have reform legislation that has eluded our nation’s grasp for a century.

This is an achievement that will rank among the highest in our national experience.

For the countless hard-working families across the country suffering at the hands of our nation’s badly broken health care system, the passage of this bill represents an unprecedented leap forward in the struggle to ensure all Americans have access to affordable health care—and makes good on President Obama’s promise to lead our country through the difficult challenges facing the American people on this issue.

With the passage of this bill comes an end to the worst of insurance company abuses. No longer will Americans have to fear being denied health insurance due to pre-existing conditions. There will be no more lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits. No more will insurance companies be allowed to retroactively cancel insurance coverage when a policy holder becomes ill.

Aside from reigning in insurance company greed, the bill also extends coverage to millions of Americans who would otherwise go without, reduces prescription drug costs for seniors, while encouraging employers to fulfill their obligation of providing benefits to their workers.

UFCW members participated in the health care debate in nearly every congressional district across the country. They made calls and wrote letters, rallied and marched, visited district offices and traveled to Washington D.C., to meet with elected representatives. UFCW members won’t forget the representatives who voted “yes” on these reforms and stood with working people and families rather than the insurance company lobbyists.

###
About Joe Hansen: President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Joe has played a key role in the negotiation of contracts covering hundreds of thousands of workers in the retail and food manufacturing industries. An original member of the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, Hansen served as the sole worker representative in that congressionally chartered body. The group facilitated a groundbreaking national dialogue that resulted in a bipartisan consensus on the need for affordable, quality care for all Americans. About the UFCW: United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream, and is a charter member of organization Health Care for America Now - a key voice in America’s health care reform movement.

Over 200,000 rally for immigration reform

Over 200,000 Americans gathered on the nation's mall today to demand Congress take action and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

If you couldn't make it to the rally, you can still do your part to make reform a reality by calling Congress. Go to www.ufcwaction.org to sign up and make your call.

UFCW members were out in force. You can check out some of the photos from the day below:

NLRB Judge Finally Gets Around to Ruling on 2007 Case

Here’s a sad illustration of how dysfunctional federal labor relations regulations are in this country, and how badly we need the Employee Free Choice Act, a wholesale reform of federal labor law.

Blast from the past: back in 2007, the UFCW filed a complaint against Foster Farms with the National Labor Relations Board for illegally influencing workers at a California plant who wanted to join a union. And now, 3 years later, an NLRB administrative judge has ruled that Foster Farms did in fact violate federal labor laws at its Porterville plant. Administrative Law Judge Gerald A. Wacknov ruled that the company promised workers improved benefits in "an effort to diminish" support for unionization.

The decision is of course a victory, however symbolic, for workers who were deceived and mistreated throughout the course of the organizing drive, and it will help them take the next step in scheduling another election. But the real story here is the one that others seem to be overlooking: the NLRB took three years to issue its first ruling one that can and most likely will be appealed several times, amounting to more years of delay on this simple, relatively small-scale complaint. The Porterville case was a pretty straightforward example of employer misconduct during an organizing campaign; Foster farms tried to ramp up benefits at its non-union plant to make workers think they didn’t need a union. Management actually told workers they’d have better pay and benefits if they remained non-union. What’s more, in 2008, the NLRB ruled that the failed 2007 election had been a sham, finding the company guilty of not translating sample ballots into Spanish and Laotian, languages spoken by many of the workers at the plant.

So why the delay on this case? And, while were at it, why such a light punishment for Foster Farms? The company broke federal law, intimidated and misled workers, and took advantage of language barriers, all to keep just 400 workers from unionizing. That’s pretty deviant behavior, but the company is barely getting a slap on the wrist. Judge Wacknov instructed Foster Farms not to repeat its behavior, and is requiring that it post information about the case in public areas, so workers can learn about the violation. I wonder if Judge Wacknov thought to remind the company to post that information in languages other than English.The sad state of affairs at the NLRB is just more painful evidence of why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The way things are now, companies know they can break the law without consequence. Imagine if other federal laws were so selectively enforced. Interstate drug trafficking? No biggie. Free speech? Eh, overrated. Counterfeiting? *Yawn*.

America’s workforce deserves better.

Support Shaw's Warehouse Workers!

Shaw's warehouse workers and Local 791 members in Massachusetts need your support! These Shaw's employees work hard to make their company successful, and they deserve a fair contract.

But Shaw's wants to make health care unaffordable for these workers and their families. That's just not right. Forcing workers to pay so much toward health care would be devestating to working families right here in Methuen, at a time when health care costs are soaring and money is already tight.

Please show Shaw's that this community supports Shaw's warehouse workers and Methuen's working families! Sign the petition today and let these workers know you support them.

UFCW Rallies Against Big Insurance, Calls on Congress to Pass Health Care Reform NOW

UFCW joined with our partners in the fight for health care reform yesterday to stand up to Big Insurance. Spurred on by the inspirational words of leaders like former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Change to Win Chair Anna Burger, and USAction President William McNary, over 5,000 workers, doctors, nurses, patients, survivors, and activists took to the streets of Washington, D.C. for a march culminating at the Ritz Carleton, where members of AHIP, the health insurance industry’s lobbying group, were meeting.

UFCW was there in full force, forming a sea of gold, to expose the insurance companies’ abuses and to tell Congress to listen to us, not to the insurance lobby. We were proud to stand with our brothers and sisters from Health Care for America NOW, SEIU, the Teamsters, AFSCME, AFT to send a strong unified message – America can’t afford to wait for health care reform. We need an up or down vote on health care now.

At the rally we heard from laid off workers who are living without health care coverage, just one illness away from bankruptcy; we heard from fellow Americans who have seen loved ones lose their fights against cancer because they couldn’t afford treatment; and we heard from activists from all over the country who can no longer afford their skyrocketing insurance premiums.

Here are some highlights from the rally:

March 9th Health Care Rally from UFCW on Vimeo.

The need to reform our country’s health care system couldn’t be clearer. Insurance companies are making record profits, while regular Americans are facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Yesterday’s march spoke loud and clear – now we’ve got to keep up the fight to turn that message into results. You can help – to call the Senate and tell them we must use reconciliation to pass a better health care bill that includes part-time workers, visit http://www.fixthebill.org/.