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Government Shouldn't Thwart Unions |
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Monday, 21 August 2006 |
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Vanishing retirement security. Rising health care costs. Gas prices north of $3 a gallon. Workers in every industry are feeling the crunch of an increasingly harsh economy.
Mark Gaffney: Labor voices Labor board poised to classify thousands of workers as supervisors America isn't working the way it should for working people. The America we built is starting to fall apart as global pressures; rising health care costs and a push to eliminate pensions threaten good jobs in America. Removing union rights And as if it weren't difficult enough for working families to make ends meet, the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board is poised to issue a series of decisions that could take away the last avenue to economic security left for America's workers: the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. This summer nurses, construction workers, painters, welders, electricians and others who have exercised their freedom to have a voice on the job are bracing for the latest -- and perhaps most devastating -- assault on their rights in decades. In reality, the decisions have the potential to affect workers in every industry. The Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board's rulings in three cases collectively known as "Kentucky River" could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their union protection, while millions more could be blocked from joining a union. At the heart of the issue is an effort to reclassify many workers such as nurses as "supervisors." Unlike employees, "supervisors" do not have protected rights under the National Labor Relations Act to form and join unions, and employers often try to classify workers as supervisors in order to deny them the right to union representation. We have cases of this in Michigan. Currently, the United American Nurses are fighting this very issue with Sparrow Specialty Hospital. The very nurses trying to form a union are being told that they cannot. Losing union protection The implications of losing union protection run deep for workers. For example, if workers lose their protections as "employees" under federal law, they may be fired or otherwise disciplined for union activity. They'll lose the freedom to choose to join or remain a member of a union. Corporate America has become increasingly aggressive in its tactics to further erode workers' rights. Today, when faced with organizing drives, 30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers, 49 percent threaten to close a worksite if workers succeed in forming a union and 51 percent coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery and favoritism, according to a 2005 study by the Center for Urban Economic Development. Anti-worker board The Bush labor board has been an active partner with Big Business in denying workers' their freedom to form and join unions. As a body composed of presidential appointees, the labor board reflects the administration's priorities. And given the Bush board's past decisions, those priorities are clear. In the closing months of 2004, the Board issued a series of decisions that stripped workers of their legal protections under the National Labor Relations Act. It ruled that graduate teaching and research assistants were not employees, making them ineligible to form a union. It targeted disabled workers by ruling that if they are receiving rehabilitative services from their employer, they are ineligible to join a union. And the board ruled that temp agency employees, though performing the same duties as regular employees, could not organize without both employer and agency permission. Each time the Bush Administration and Bush-appointed Labor Board have had the chance to roll back workers' rights, they've taken it. And that's just plain wrong. Working people shouldn't be treated as pawns in Washington, D.C.'s game of politics. We expect our elected leaders will protect workers' rights and fight hard for good jobs that provide a living wage, health care coverage and retirement security for all Americans. The National Labor Relations Board should stop trying to limit the number of workers who can be protected under its watch. |
