The Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board has issued a string of rulings tilting in favor of employers over workers as the new year begins. The decisions have made it more difficult for temporary workers to organize unions and have made it easier for employers to use lockouts against workers among other things. These decisions have been party-line votes with Republicans opposing the positions taken by workers. Cornell Professor James Gross, an author of several books about the NLRB, says these decisions are fundamentally inconsistent with the purpose of the NLRB, which is to encourage collective bargaining.