“With the White House taking a more aggressive role in setting labor standards, industry groups are beginning to fight back — lashing out at the executive branch for pursuing “a partisan agenda.â€
A coalition of five national industry groups — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — filed a complaint in federal court earlier this week to block a change to the way the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administers unionization elections. The new regulatory framework, which the Chamber and other industry groups derisively refer to as the “ambush election†rule, makes it easier for workers to quickly call an ballot by allowing for electronic filing of documents and preventing employers from slowing the process through pre-election litigation.
In a statement announcing the complaint, the industry groups behind the challenge accused the NLRB of being a partisan, activist institution.
“The NLRB has thrown objectivity and fairness out the window in its single-minded pursuit of Big Labor’s union-organizing goals,†said David French, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, one of the groups behind the suit.
Linda Kelly, general counsel and senior vice president for the National Association of Manufacturers, said that with the introduction of the new NLRB rule, the Obama administration “has made it clear that it plans to pursue a partisan agenda to overturn longstanding and effective labor policy.”
The White House has made little effort to conceal its intentions in that regard. In recent weeks, the NLRB has come down on the side of organized labor in a number of other significant, precedent-setting decisions.
On Dec. 19, for example, the labor board’s general counsel determined that fast-food chain McDonald’s can be held responsible for labor law violations committed by owners of its franchised locations. McDonald’s has vowed to resist that decision in court.
The Labor Department has also been keeping busy. The department’s Wage and Hour division has stepped up its enforcement of wage and hour violations such as unpaid overtime or wage theft, and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is expected to announce soon new rules expanding the number of workers who are legally entitled to overtime pay.
During a Wednesday speech to the National Summit on Raising Wages — a Washington, D.C. event sponsored by AFL-CIO, America’s biggest labor federation — Perez stressed what he said was the essential partnership between the labor movement and President Barack Obama.
“He is here in spirit,†he said. “He is here in his values.”
Organized labor and the White House have not…”
Originally posted by Aljazeera America. Full article at http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/7/showdown-loomingbetweenwhitehouseandbusinessoverlaborrules.html
