[NLRB Chairman Wilma Liebman is an attorney formerly employed by the Teamsters and Bricklayers' unions.]
With only one Republican Board member to three union-side Board members, even the slightest modicum of ‘neutrality’ on the Board is finished.
The following is a round-up from around the web [with emphasis added throughout]:
From the American Thinker:
I think it's safe to say that the NLRB is now about as impartial a body as Robespierre's Revolutionary Tribunal that condemned tens of thousands to the guillotine during the French Revolution.
Now that SEIU flunky Craig Becker has been added to the board via recess appointment, it will be as if Andy Stern woke up on Christmas morning with this heart's desire in his stocking...
The Las Vegas Review Journal:
The American Spectator:
In past writings, Mr. Becker reveals himself as a radical collectivist who questions the sanctity of private property, rails against "individualism" and argues that unions are necessary in order to combat the evils of "competition and contract."
At a time when the president should be bending over backward to reassure the nation's employers that he's not some Marxist out to further punish them, appointing a character of Mr. Becker's background is like handing the NLRB a pistol and saying, "Put them out of their misery."
The American Spectator:
Acting like a Latin American caudillo President Obama continues to thumb his nose at Congress, daring Republican members of the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against him.
[snip]
Becker also believes that all Americans should be forced to join unions whether they want to or not.
The Washington Examiner:
There’s no compelling reason for such a radical advocate to be given such an important post. Aside from the problem of the fox guarding the hen house, it just reeks of political payback. Unions spent $400 million getting Democrats elected in 2008 and now Obama’s going to stack the deck in their favor, killing jobs and sticking it to the taxpayer in the process.
Katie Packer at Townhall.com:
Craig Becker’s nomination is a threat to the economy because he believes small businesses “should have no right to be heard in either a representation case or an unfair labor practices case” meaning “employers have no standing to assert their employees’ right to fair representation.” These are Becker’s own words, which were published in the University of Minnesota Law Review in 1993.
This extreme nominee believes employers should have no “legal standing” in the unionization process of their own workplace. Really? So the AFL-CIO’s Rich Trumka and the SEIU’s Andy Stern should have a voice in the unionization process and the guy who started the business should not? It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious.
The Daily Caller:
President Obama on Saturday gave organized labor a big payback for its help in pushing his health-care reform across the finish line, unilaterally appointing a controversial pro-union attorney to the body that arbitrates the rules for union elections, after his nomination attracted bipartisan opposition in the Senate.
Coming just a few days after the president’s health-care plan was passed into law despite opposition from Democrats and Republicans in Congress and strong disapproval in most public opinion polls, the move promised to only heighten political tension in Washington.
The American Pundit:
Becker isn’t just a thug, he’s a labor radical. He believes in mandatory unionization. He also believes “employers should be stripped of any legally cognizable interest in their employees’ election of representatives.” This guy has union bosses everywhere smiling as he will use his position on the NLRB to further unionize the country and place it under the control of powerful organized labor.
The Washington Examiner [part deux]:
Expect Becker to come on like a man possessed once he is ensconced at the NLRB because nobody expects the next Congress to be any more receptive to his appointment than the current one. But nine months of Becker on the NLRB is better than nothing, especially because the Senate has been markedly unsympathetic to Card Check, despite it being the union bosses' No. 1 legislative priority.
The Truth About EFCA blog:
Card Check and NLRB: Raw Deal or New Deal?
“The NLRB is now 3 to 1. On August 27, it will be 3 to 0. Not since the New Deal and first six years of the NLRB, 1935-1941, has the Board been all Democrats or all from one party. Labor law reform followed in 1947 to balance the scales. Is the past to be prologue”
The Truth About EFCA (II):
“Becker is the first person ever to sit on the National Labor Relations Board that has worked directly for a labor organization. Those with business before the board have a right to face a fair and impartial panel, but it is highly doubtful that Becker will administer our nation’s labor laws in an unbiased manner.
“Radical partisanship has no place in a federal board designed as an independent agency to serve the public interest,” said Elmer. “Allowing Craig Becker a seat on the National Labor Relations Board will disrupt years of established precedent and the delicate balance in current labor law,” Elmer said.
The Workforce Fairness Institute:
“With today’s recess appointment, President Obama has completely undone his own argument concerning job creation and traded away any credibility his administration might have on the economy. Craig Becker’s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board will only result in higher unemployment and more burdens on small businesses due to his willingness to enact administratively portions of the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act.
Check back for more additions to this round-up.
Sen. Demint: The President is 'mocking Americans'...
Flashback: Senator Johnny Isakson [R-GA]:
———————
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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