Unions Look for Help from Labor Relations Board

[Earth Bound Misfit]

http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/unions_seek_help_from_board_090303.html

The pendulum is about to swing back toward workers at the National Labor Relations Board.

By Martha Lynn Craver

March 3, 2009

Big changes lie ahead for unions and businesses, now that Democrats are set to control the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). President Obama recently switched the positions of the agency's only two board members, taking the chairmanship away from Republican Peter Schaumber and giving it to Democrat Wilma Liebman. The president is expected to nominate two more Democrats and one Republican to the board, giving Democrats a voting majority. Until then, the two seated members will limit their decisions to less controversial cases on which they can reach agreement. There may not be many of those. "Schaumber and Liebman are miles apart in their ideologies," says Bob Battista, a former NLRB chair under pResident **.


With the Democrats in charge, look for the board to revisit important decisions made during **'s pResidency:

The definition of an employee. In a Brown University case, the NLRB board under ** held that graduate student teaching assistants are students and not employees and therefore can't organize into a union. This reversed a decision by the board under President Clinton.

The definition of supervisor. In an Oakwood Healthcare case, the ** board ruled that some nurses who assign duties to others are supervisors and are not allowed to unionize. An Obama board is expected to reverse this decision. There's also legislation pending in Congress that would accomplish the same thing.

Representation in an investigatory interview. Boards have gone back and forth on whether a nonunion employee has the right to have a coworker present at an investigatory interview. The GOP board said "no," but a board under Democratic control will likely say "yes."

Unfair labor practices. In the Registered Guard case, the question was whether employees could send e-mails for non-job related (union) solicitation using the employer's computer system. The ** board ruled that an employer could ban the use of the company e-mail system as long as the ban is not handled in a discriminatory manner. This case is on appeal, but if the ruling stands, there's a good chance it will be revisited by the new board.

Union decertification. The ** board ruled that a minority of workers (30%) can seek to dislodge a union organized under card-check procedures, which do not require an election. The case is known as Dana/Metaldyne and reverses a 40-year precedent. The decision is viewed as limiting a union's ability to organize, and unions are sure to tee up a similar case so that the new board can reverse the decision.