NLRB hearings on forced promotions
I almost broke my self-imposed rule (the one that keeps me from embedding music and videos on this site) to post a YouTube video of a segment I saw the other night on The Colbert Report. The video is a witty look at a current case before the National Labor Relations Board, one that deals with forced promotions by an employer to unilaterally re-title workers looking to join a union as “supervisors.” In so doing, the employer can effectively strip them of the right to be union members.
Despite the decades-long decline of the unionized American workforce, the NLRB of the current White House seems to think labor’s (largely self-imposed) decline still needs a bit of a push. Hence the changes in overtime rules a couple years ago (purportedly aimed at helping lower income workers, although I still have no idea how that’s supposed to work).
I know several people classified as “supervisors” who have complained to me since the overtime rule imposition that their pay has decreased noticeably. I even know a few “supervisors” whose actual job doesn’t seem to involve supervising anyone or anything beyond their own professional tasks. I know of at least a handful who’ve considered seeking union representation, unaware that they don’t even have that right under current regulations.
I’m okay with people not believing in organized labor. That’s fine, but I’m not okay with forced rule changes designed to limit other people’s rights to organize. And my faith in the current NLRB is decreased by the glut of one-sided decisions handed down, some of them flying in the face of longstanding previous board decisions. Further, I harbor suspicion that the current administration’s NLRB policy of not allowing oral arguments only bolsters the philosophical myopia that goes hand-in-hand with the administration’s momentum on all things labor-related.
I know not all my readers are in-step with my labor sympathies, but I’d hope we all share the belief that decisions with such wide-ranging implications should be made with the benefit of real, transparent debate. I sent a fax to my Congressional representatives to that effect. I’d encourage others to do the same.
The website American Rights at Work has a form letter, if that’s your preferred avenue of expression (yes, you can edit it for your purposes), or you can use whatever vein of expression you see fit. Or none at all.
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