Unionizing Doctors: SEIU already reaping rewards at having Craig Becker at the NLRB

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is already reaping the rewards of having its Associate General Counsel Craig Becker sitting on the union-controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

On June 3rd, the union-controlled NLRB issued a 2-1 decision denying a request for review (a form of appeal) by St. Barnabas Hospital regarding the unionization of its resident physicians.  The two board members were former-Teamster attorney (and current NLRB chairman) Wilma Liebman and SEIU's former associate general counsel Craig Becker.  The dissenter was the last remaining GOP appointee Peter Schaumber (whose term expires in August).

Legitimate and unanswered questions still remain about why the SEIU's Becker refuses to recuse himself on cases involving the SEIU, but the fact is, the SEIU's presence on the labor board is already reaping rewards for the purple behemoth.

Resident physicians at St. Barnabas Hospital voted overwhelmingly to form a union after a two-year fight. The National Labor Relations Board today announced a 119 to 2 vote in favor of the residents and interns of joining the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare as their exclusive bargaining agent.

“St. Barnabas's frontline caregivers haven't had the voice they need to advocate for a better, safer hospital for themselves and the Bronx community,” said Eric Scherzer, Executive Director of CIR, in a statement. “With today's vote, they'll be able to work cooperatively with management to achieve their goals.”

But the hospital immediately said it may appeal an NLRB decision that allowed the vote to be counted.

A St. Barnabas spokesman also noted that just 121 of the 280 eligible residents chose to vote, but the union says that total is misleading. A total of 168 votes were cast; St. Barnabas challenged 47 of them because they belonged to residents leaving at the end of the month. CIR agreed to let the remaining 121 votes be counted first, while the the remaining challenged ballots would only be opened if the outcome was in question.

While the hospital is appealing the NLRB's refusal to review its case, the NLRB's current position (unless overturned by the courts) enables the SEIU (and other unions) to unionize resident physicians across the nation, adding tens of thousands of members (and millions of dollars) to the SEIU's rolls and treasury.

You didn't really think the SEIU pushed for nationalized health care for altruistic purposes, did you?
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.

EFCA may be "dead" in Congress, but unions are running the NLRB

According to U.S. Representative Phil Roe (R-TN), the job destroying and hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act is "dead" this year.

U.S. Rep. Phil Roe says legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize in the workplace is dead in Congress.


Roe, R-Tenn., recently told human resources professionals at the Kingsport’s MeadowView Marriott that the “Employee Free Choice Act” won’t come back up in this congressional session.


[snip]


“Unless the Senate acted on it, (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi said she would not bring it to the House floor,” Roe told those attending a labor and employment seminar put on by the Kingsport-based Hunter, Smith and Davis law firm. “It won’t be back. ... You will not see that in this Congress. It’s deader than a doornail.”

While this is certainly good news (Scott Brown helped confirm this months ago), the other shoe is dropping over at the National Labor Relations Board, where unions control the government agency like a pitbull's jaws on a chihuahua's throat.

Since SEIU-appointee Craig Becker and union attorney Mark Pearce were seated alongside former Teamster attorney (and current NLRB Chairman) Wilma Liebman, the agency has become to unions what the KGB was to the Kremlin.  And, it's only going to get worse in the months and years ahead.

Already, the NLRB has begun using press releases to tout union "wins," while seemingly ignoring rulings against unions (like this one).

With the General Counsel, Republican-appointee Ron Meisberg resigning two months before his term expires and the last Republican-appointee leaving in August, the union-controlled NLRB will have carte blanche ability to run roughshod over America's union-free workers and their employers.

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.

With or Without EFCA, a Union-Run NLRB Makes Business Jumpy

The job-destroying and hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) may have suffered a near-fatal blow with the election of Scott Brown to the Senate in February, but employers are not without concern regarding the impact that a union-friendly administration may have on their businesses.

Unfortunately, with unemployment high and businesses unwilling (or unable) to hire, if President Obama was trying to bring America back from the brink of economic disaster by creating a climate that is 'pro-business,' he sure missed the mark with last month's recess appointment of SEIU lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

To say the new union-run NLRB has the business community concerned is an understatement. As Politico reports:

Republicans and the business community have better-grounded reasons to worry about what will happen at the NLRB, which has a long history of overruling itself when the White House changes parties.

[snip]

Union leaders have sought, through the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, to create an alternative method to organizing that would allow workers to sign cards expressing their desire to join a union. Now that Becker is on the board, Isakson is working with colleagues to draft legislation that would make it a federal law — rather than a regulation — to require unions to hold organizing elections.

In an interview, NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman said that at best, the NLRB could tinker around the edges of current organizing rules by expediting union elections. But even that would have to be done through a process called rulemaking, which the board hasn’t exercised in decades.

Liebman spooked the business community last year when she organized staff educational sessions on that process. She told POLITICO that she did that in anticipation of passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, after which the NLRB would be required to write implementation rules.

“Now, it doesn’t look like we will have a labor reform law passed,” she said, referring to the successful GOP filibuster of the legislation.

Still, Johnson is keeping the business community on edge by warning that the NLRB could try to act on its own, even though Liebman, a 12-year board veteran, says it can’t, and that, as chairwoman, she doesn’t intend to move in that direction.

“Rulemaking is not something you snap your fingers and you do. My recommendation is, if we try it, we stick our toe in the water with something small and discreet. Wholesale, radical, sweeping reform,” she said, “is quite unrealistic.”  [Emphasis added.]

Regardless of its smallness or its discreetness, the push to expand unions through regulatory fiat is something that, in this economic climate, causes many businesses to think twice about hiring.  As a result, any momentum an economic recovery could be getting is merely slowed.
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“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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The SEIU, the NLRB & Recess Appointments: A Shrewd Obama Trick?

If you work in the private sector (except for airlines and railroads) the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) is a little known agency that can have a huge impact on your work life.  Given that the goal of union bosses is to turn millions of Americans into dues-paying union members, what happens at the NLRB is of consequence to you, whether you're an employee or an employer.

Over the weekend, President Obama 'recess appointed' two union lawyers (SEIU and AFL-CIO attorney Craig Becker, as well as union lawyer Mark Pearce) to the National Labor Relations Board.  The highly controversial Becker is the only known NLRB member to have gone from employment by a union directly to the NLRB.

[Although current NLRB Chair Wilma Liebman is a former union attorney employed by the Teamsters and Bricklayers' unions and is considered highly pro-union, she did spend time in other governmental capacities prior to being appointed to the NLRB.]

Obama's recess appointments of Becker and Pearce has rightfully angered the business community, those job creators whom President Obama claims to respect.

[We have compiled a round-up of commentary here.]

What is very interesting about Obama's blatant catering to union-boss wishes is his purposeful neglect of his Republican nominee Brian Hayes.  [Hayes was part of Obama's three-member nominee package last year.]

As über-blogger Bret Jacobson notes on Big Government.com*:

[T]he president has gone well outside the norm of history by failing to appoint a Republican and Democrat at the same time. Some worry he is trying to stack the deck to make sure government can — as they have said in their own words — “change the rules governing forming a union through administrative action” even without passing a card check bill.

Former NLRB member and attorney Peter Kirsanow takes this a step further writing in the National Review:

Lost in the noise concerning Becker's recess appointment, however, are signals that the Obama administration is playing a rather shrewd longer-term game concerning the NLRB.

As another former NLRB member and attorney, John Raudabaugh, writes on his firm's website:

More change is imminent. Current Republican Member Schaumber’s term ends August 27, 2010, and current General Counsel Meisburg’s term ends August 14, 2010. It is possible that Becker and Pearce will be packaged along with Hayes and a yet-unnamed Republican nominee for a Board seat and a Democrat nominee to fill the General Counsel position sometime this summer. Such a move would convert Becker and Pearce from recess appointees to confirmed members with the longest available terms all reallocated to Democrats.

As the law firm of Ogletree Deakins asserts:

If those vacancies are not filled, there would be no Board Member to write dissenting opinions to help guide reviewing federal courts on appeal.

Former NLRB member Kirsanow, however, suggests there could be an even more sinister goal of the administration afoot:

[Hayes] was not among the recess appointments this weekend. This suggests that the president may be using the appointment of Hayes as leverage to get the Senate to confirm the original three-nominee package.

Why is this of note? Because recess appointments last only until congress adjourns at the end of 2011. But if the senate confirms Becker and Pearce in exchange for getting Hayes on board also, Becker and Pearce's confirmed terms would be extended by approximatelythree more years — plenty of time for the Obama Board to make a substantial imprint on labor law.

In other words, Becker and Pearce's appointments may be being used as a trap to lure the Senate (Republicans) into giving Becker and Pearce full terms on the NLRB.  If the Senate falls goes for it, as opposed to mere 'recess appointments,' the union bosses at the SEIU and AFL-CIO will have near-full reign on the NLRB for years to come and, as a result, have more damaging effects through an agency that governs nearly every private-sector workplace.

[* Emphasis added throughout.]

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“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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Cross-posted.

Help America's Workplace: How You Can Help Keep SEIU's Inside Man Out of the NLRB...

On Wednesday, a critical vote is taking place in a United States Senate subcommitte that affects nearly every working American regardless whether they own a business, or work for one.

SOME BACKGROUND...

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) affects nearly every employer and employee in the private sector (except airlines and railroads, which are covered by the Railway Labor Act).

• Unions would like to change to National Labor Relations Act by passing a job-destroying law misleadingly named the Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA, for short. EFCA is a bailout bill for union bosses in that it effectively eliminate secret-ballot votes on whether employees wish to become unionized or not, as well as lets the government dictate terms and conditions of employment (which includes wages and benefits) onto employees and their employers.

The National Labor Relations Board is a five-member independent agency established to administer and enforce the NLRA. Its members are appointed by the President.

On Inauguration Day, President Obama promoted former Teamster attorney and board member Wilma Liebman to the chairmanship of the NLRB. In addition, President Obama has nominated two other union attorneys, Mark Pearce and Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

Craig Becker, who currently works for both the AFL-CIO and the ACORN benefactor SEIU as associate general counsel is viewed as a union extremist for his views, which include:

• Supports "home visits," in which union goons repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union authorization cards (see here for an example of this intimidating practice)
• Advocates letting government arbiters impose contracts on workers and employers on workers, without even allowing the workers to vote on the contract (a practice which even Far Left icon George McGovern opposes)
• Believes employers should be absolutely prohibited from sharing any truthful and noncoercive information with employees about the effects of unionization
• Illogically and radically compares union certification elections to US Congressional elections, stating that the only question decided in such elections should be which union gets monopoly control over workers, not whether they wish to remain independent and union free.

Read the National Right to Work Foundation's primer (PDF) on union radical Craig Becker here.

THIS WEDNESDAY, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (ironically called HELP) plans to vote on Becker, Pearce and other Obama union nominees without even holding a hearing.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED...

We're passing this call to action along from the Workforce Fairness Institute:

Big Labor’s plans to infiltrate and control vital components of the federal agencies tasked with overseeing their actions are unfolding right before our eyes. In seeking payback for the huge amounts of campaign dollars they expended in last year’s elections, union bosses are aggressively pushing their agenda in every corner of Washington, D.C. – starting with the forced unionization of small business through the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act.

Their latest effort is to push one of their own for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – the very board set up to oversee union elections, investigate labor practices, and interpret the National Labor Relations Act. Big Labor bosses were able to persuade President Obama to nominate the Service Employees
International Union’s (SEIU) associate general counsel Craig Becker for a seat on the board… not very different from having the fox guard the henhouse some might say.

The most troubling aspect of this nomination is that Becker already has a plan to use backdoor tactics to force unionization on millions of U.S. workers. He has written extensively about ways to re-write current union election rules in favor of the labor movement – all without a vote in Congress.

Becker would use the power of the NLRB to dictate pro-union practices that would affect every small business owner and employee in the country.

Take those tactics and combine them with Big Labor’s number one agenda item – the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act and you can see that a perfect storm is brewing that could result in the loss of the secret ballot in union organizing elections and government control over contract negotiations – all without input from the public.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “One of Big Labor’s priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress.”

And to make matters worse, the Democratic leadership in the Senate has refused to call a hearing on Becker’s nomination where Senators can question him and see where he stands on the important issues related to labor policy.

This is another attempt to rush something through without input from the public or even our representatives in Congress.

We need you to act TODAY! Please contact your U.S. Senators and Member of Congress and let them know you oppose Craig Becker’s appointment to the National Labor Relations Board. Let them know you oppose his backdoor tactics to force unionization on the workers in your community.

Sincerely,

Jason McBride
Workforce Fairness Institute

P.S. Becker has also stated that employers have no legitimate role to play when their employees are the target of a union organizing effort. That’s right, no legitimate role. Please take action today to let your Senators and Congressman know to OPPOSE Becker’s appointment to the NLRB.

EXCLUSIVE: Accused of Hypocrisy, Pro-Union NLRB Chair Gets Picketed by NLRB Staffers

It's noteworthy when one of America's most ardent and well-known union supporters employed by the federal government gets picketed and accused of hypocrisy by her own union staff. And that is exactly what happened to former union attorney and current National Labor Relations Board Chairman Wilma Liebman last Wednesday.

On Wednesday, NLRB Chairman Liebman spoke at San Francisco's posh Hotel Kabuki on developments in labor law. Upon her arrival, however, she was greeted by her own employees' staff union, the NLRBU, who were picketing, leafletting, and urging attendees to boycott the event. [That's right, the employees (who hear private-sector cases) at the National Labor Relations Board are unionized!]

A copy of the NLRBU's flyer, as well as a report on the event, was forwarded along to us.

The flyer (at right) is interesting in the fact that the union which represents the staff at the NLRB (the agency ostensibly established to be 'neutral' in the administration of the law regulating private-sector relationships between unions and management) is using the tactics that its brethren in the private sector use on employers.

Here is some of the verbiage [with emphasis added] from the NLRBU's flyer:

THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD UNION ASKS YOU NOT TO ATTEND THE APPEARANCE OF WILMA LIEBMAN

Wilma Liebman, Chairman of the National Labor Rclations Board, will appear here today at a luncheon being given by LERA/IRRA The National Labor Relations Board Union, which represents employees of the Agency, asks that you respect its picket line and refuse to attend the luncheon.

an accusation of a two-faced NLRB chairman...

But there is another side to Wilma Liebman. Although she is charged with the responsibility for ensuring that private sector employers respect the rights of their workers and that they bargain in good faith with the representatives of those workers, Ms. Liebman adopts an entirely different stance with her own employees.

and condemnation...

In January and February of this year, the Union asked Ms. Liebman to end the Agency's violations of federal labor law and to comply with the Order of the FLRA. Rather than do so, she refused to intervene. In so doing, she has condoned the Agency's continued defiance of the law and its refusal to bargain with the lawful representative of its employees, precisely the type of conduct she routinely condemns when it is engaged in by private sector employees. [sic]

Thanks to our sources for providing us with the above intel.

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