A Georgia Republican’s attempt to kill the National Labor Relations Board by yanking all of its funding – not just cutting it 17% -- was one of a slew of anti-union moves passed or pending on both sides of Capitol Hill as Congress worked its way through a money bill and two versions of a transportation bill.
And the dominant theme of all the action on Feb. 14-17, with one exception, was that workers and unions were coming out on the short end of the stick.
Even before the slew of anti-worker measures started, Senate Labor Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was warning of the onslaught – when Kentucky Republican Rand Paul tried to kill Davis-Bacon wage protections on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects the week before.
Paul lost, but Harkin’s words apply to the other congressional actions, too. He called the GOP moves “an alarming trend” of “unnecessary and misplaced attacks on basic rights and protections for American workers.
“Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem to be chomping at the bit to bring American workers down a notch or two more,” Harkin added, endangering “fair wages, safe working conditions, and other basic workplace rights. I hope all other Republicans don’t share that radical viewpoint.”
One who does was Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. He tried to attach his anti-NLRB amendment to the money bill to fund the government from March 4 through the end of the year. As of late evening Feb. 17, the House had yet to vote on Price’s plan.
The GOP money bill itself would cut the NLRB by 17.6%, or $53 million, leading to two months worth of furloughs for its staff, an agency spokeswoman says.
Price called the NLRB “a New Deal relic” which is “out of control,” and accused the board – and specifically member Craig Becker, a former general counsel for SEIU and the AFL-CIO – of being “a constant threat” to business. Price wanted to cut it all.
Price charged the NLRB is trying on its own to enact majority sign-up, also known as card-check, recognition. The Employee Free Choice Act, which would have formally legalized majority sign-up – which the NLRB first approved in 1962 – is dead.
Price’s solution to his NLRB allegation: Put the agency out of business.
House Democrats defended the NLRB by asking who or what would solve labor-management disputes without it. The NLRB “Protects workers from retaliation for exercising their rights,” retorted Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. “These functions are fundamental to democracy and a workplace...If workers are fired for joining a union, where would they go for a remedy?”
Other anti-worker GOP brainstorms were inserted in the FAA bill, both in the version senators worked through on the floor and in a companion measure the House Transportation Committee worked on on Feb. 16:
* By a 30-29 vote, the panel retained language in the House version of the FAA bill to nullify the National Mediation Board’s decision last year that a majority of votes cast is all that’s needed for unions to win recognition at airlines and railroads. NMB used that requirement to replace its old rule that a union must get 50%+1 of all eligible voters to win –- with absent voters being counted as “no”s.
AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Ed Wytkind called the GOP provision “a poorly veiled attempt to deprive aviation and rail employees the unfettered right to participate in a fair union election, free from management interference and under democratic procedures found throughout American society.”
* The House panel rejected an amendment by Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, to bring flight attendants under OSHA’s worker health and safety protections. The FAA said since it regulates airlines, it would regulate that, too. It never has. In the Senate, Paul tried to strip OSHA from regulating health and safety for flight crews, but lost.
* Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y, wanted to restore $125 million to help operate the Social Security system. Cutting the money “is cutting Social Security, pure, plain and simple,” he said, because it would lack staffers to handle claims and ensure checks went out on time, to the right people. He said the agency would suffer a total $1 billion cut and have to shut down for a month. His amendment was ruled out of order because he did not find cuts elsewhere to pay for it.
The Fire Fighters got the one worker win in the entire hullabaloo. While working on the money bill, lawmakers restored $510 million in federal Fighter Assistance Grants. The 318-113 vote also specified the money – used for everything from anti-terrorism training to extra personnel – will be taken from elsewhere.
“Fire Fighters spoke with a united voice against the irresponsible cuts to public safety,” IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said after the vote – and after IAFF members bombarded lawmakers with phone calls. “Congress heard our message loud and clear and stood up for what was right. Because of the efforts of this great union, funding has been restored and cuts to Fire Act grants have been reversed.”