The National Labor Relations Board is the independent federal agency responsible for enforcing unfair labor practices.
I recently learned it's yet another agency the Republicans are blocking nominations for, preventing it from functioning as far as voting on any issues.
It's a five member board. A quorum requires three members, and they have two since Republicans have refused to approve any replacements for the other three.
The Senate has enough Democratic votes to approve them in a vote, but the Republicans have abused the filibuster to prevent approval.
President Obama used the recess appointment power to get around the Republicans and appoint three members - and two appellate courts with Republican appointees have ruled that his recess appointments (another example why judicial appointments are such an important issue in presidential elections. Two of the three appellate judges were Bush appointees, one an Obama appointee, it was a 2-1 ruling).
(This was the second ruling against Obama; the first was a 3-0 ruling by the DC circuit, with all three judges appinted by Republican presidents).
The administration has appealed the ruling to the US Supreme Court (where again, Republican appointed justices hold a majority, where we contantly see 5-4 rulings).
Reportedly, come August, the board will not have any members on the board - and that appears to suit Republicans just fine; they seem to support abolishing the agency.
As I was considering whether to make a thread about what's going on, I was one of our members write in his own thread how he was being unfairly threatened, and he wrote:
This was a reminder of the impact of these things.
It's pretty basic - democrats are generally in favor of protecting workers' interests, and Republicans are generally representing employers' interests at the expense of workers.
It's pretty outrageous the tactics being used which are hurting workers.
Currently, President Obama has appointed five new members to the NLRB - three Democrats and two Republicans, reported as Republicans requested.
They are about to be voted on in committee, expected to be approved; the question is, will Republicans filibuster them as well?
Unions are fighting for their approval, asking people to contact their Senators.
I'd like to see many thousands of workers have the protoection of the law they're entitled to, including our member if needed, he has a meeting this morning.
"The NLRB has issued at least 1178 published and unpublished decisions since August 27, 2011" reports a judicial site, with links to the rulings; apparenlty these are all in jeopardy:
http://www.chamberlitigation.com/recess-appointments-litigation-resource-page
Wikipedia on the NLRB:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Board
NLRB web site:
http://www.nlrb.gov/
Union opinion piece:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-cohen/national-labor-relations-board_b_3070207.html
I recently learned it's yet another agency the Republicans are blocking nominations for, preventing it from functioning as far as voting on any issues.
It's a five member board. A quorum requires three members, and they have two since Republicans have refused to approve any replacements for the other three.
The Senate has enough Democratic votes to approve them in a vote, but the Republicans have abused the filibuster to prevent approval.
President Obama used the recess appointment power to get around the Republicans and appoint three members - and two appellate courts with Republican appointees have ruled that his recess appointments (another example why judicial appointments are such an important issue in presidential elections. Two of the three appellate judges were Bush appointees, one an Obama appointee, it was a 2-1 ruling).
(This was the second ruling against Obama; the first was a 3-0 ruling by the DC circuit, with all three judges appinted by Republican presidents).
The administration has appealed the ruling to the US Supreme Court (where again, Republican appointed justices hold a majority, where we contantly see 5-4 rulings).
Reportedly, come August, the board will not have any members on the board - and that appears to suit Republicans just fine; they seem to support abolishing the agency.
As I was considering whether to make a thread about what's going on, I was one of our members write in his own thread how he was being unfairly threatened, and he wrote:
This was a reminder of the impact of these things.
It's pretty basic - democrats are generally in favor of protecting workers' interests, and Republicans are generally representing employers' interests at the expense of workers.
It's pretty outrageous the tactics being used which are hurting workers.
Currently, President Obama has appointed five new members to the NLRB - three Democrats and two Republicans, reported as Republicans requested.
They are about to be voted on in committee, expected to be approved; the question is, will Republicans filibuster them as well?
Unions are fighting for their approval, asking people to contact their Senators.
I'd like to see many thousands of workers have the protoection of the law they're entitled to, including our member if needed, he has a meeting this morning.
"The NLRB has issued at least 1178 published and unpublished decisions since August 27, 2011" reports a judicial site, with links to the rulings; apparenlty these are all in jeopardy:
http://www.chamberlitigation.com/recess-appointments-litigation-resource-page
Wikipedia on the NLRB:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Board
NLRB web site:
http://www.nlrb.gov/
Union opinion piece:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-cohen/national-labor-relations-board_b_3070207.html
