For over three years, American Rights at Work has published “Workers’ Rights Watch: Eye on the NLRB,” publicizing the insufficiency of U.S. labor law while raising awareness of a little-known agency making critical decisions affecting workers' lives and freedoms.

I’m excited to share that we are re-launching this publication as a blog, allowing me to post more frequent and timely commentary on NLRB decisions, and to generate more attention to decisions which make the case for labor law reform.

You can find Eye on the NLRB at www.eyeonthenlrb.org.

Way back in 1989, over 200 Domsey Trading employees decided to form a union and the company retaliated with physical assaults, racial and sexual abuse, and illegally firings.  Yet these workers had to wait until this past September for the National Labor Relations Board to confirm the amount of backpay the company owed them.  I’m a patient person, but 18 years is a long time for wait for justice.  Tragically, one of the main union supporters passed away before he could collect his backpay. 

The Domsey Trading case is one of many issued by the Labor Board in September marred by outrageous delays...

This past September, National Labor Relations Board Chairman Robert Battista, appointed by Bush in 2002, led his fellow Republicans in a flurry of anti-worker decisions.  After reviewing these decisions, I’m momentarily deluded into thinking that Americans wield enormous power in the workplace that needs to be checked, and that employers can only catch a break when the government steps in to protect them.  When I quickly return to reality, I’m left wondering if Battista and friends missed the sarcasm in Stephen Colbert’s call for management “solidarity.”

Signed petitions from workers, in other words, are suspect when the workers want a union and proof positive when they don't.

Most Americans aren’t aware of the obstacles workers face when trying to form unions—but they certainly wouldn’t expect the law or the agency set up to protect those rights to get in the way.  Unfortunately, workers rarely win when they end up at the National Labor Relations Board.

In 1984, a Subcommittee of the House of Representatives adopted a report called "The Failure of Labor Law—A Betrayal of American Workers," which stated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) “has ceased to accomplish its purpose…. The evidence is clear that the law does not encourage collective bargaining.  Rather it has become an impediment.”  But first and foremost, the law doesn’t even begin to protect the fundamental right of workers to organize unions. 

In September, the National Labor Relations Board issued an unprecedented number of decisions undermining workers’ fundamental rights.  Two of these decisions added new hurdles that workers must overcome before they can receive what employers have unlawfully taken away, most involving backpay. In one case, the NLRB made it even cheaper for employers to fire union supporters to chill an organizing effort.  In the other, the Republican majority of the Board reversed a 45-year precedent to shift a burden of proof from the employer to the worker, to make it more difficult for fired workers to collect backpay. 

 Until now, workers have successfully formed unions through voluntary recognition, a process where employers agree to recognize a union once a majority of workers sign cards.  This peaceful, swift, and non-disruptive organizing method provides an alternative to the flawed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process.  However, workers and employers who use this method are now undermined by a major ruling of the NLRB.  The Republican majority of the Board sided with anti-union groups in radically changing the law.  Without providing legitimate factual evidence to justify reversing 40 years of precedent, the Board exposed its real political motivations.

The Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board issued decisions in October that could strip millions of workers of their right to have a union at work—all without holding public hearings. 

On July 18, 2006, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report"—a show satirizing Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor"—host Stephen Colbert took on the National Labor Relations Board and the potentially disastrous impact its rulings could have on workers.

Watch the video below:

 Behind closed doors, the fate of millions of America's workers will be decided by the National Labor Relations Board.  The five-member Board is considering three cases which could strip millions of workers-including nurses, quality control inspectors, sales representatives, and many others-of their rights to form a union and collectively bargain.  Yet despite the great significance of the ruling, the Republican majority of the Board is refusing to hold public hearings on the matter.