By Doug Cunningham

When the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board expanded the definition of supervisor it wiped out union rights for workers who aren’t really in management. Now the Democratically controlled Congress is considering the RESPECT Act to restore union rights taken away by partisan NLRB decisions. Lori Gay, a Salt Lake City RN, testified before Congress on being deprived of her right to join a union by being falsely defined as a supervisor.

[Gay]: “I've been a nurse for 21 years and I've never thought of myself as a supervisor or been compensated as a supervisor. I just go to work and take care of patients and once in awhile I have to be in charge of putting patients in beds and assigning a nurse to that patient - which literally takes ten minutes out of a 12 hour shift. And now I'm being (defined as) a supervisor, therefore I lost my rights to belong to a bargaining unit."

Gay wants Congress to restore union rights stripped away by the NLRB.

[Gay 2]: “I want to protect patients. And I feel the way we can protect patients is to have a voice in how we take care of patients. And that voice would be through a union."