What do you do when your job is to enforce federal labor law but your employer is resorting to the same tactics you are employed to fight? You ask for his resignation. That is the case for employees of the National Labor Relations Board who are engaged in a battle for their bargaining rights against National Labor Relations Board General Counsel, Ronald Meisburg. The employees of the NLRB are represented by the NLRB Union and on Wednesday they held informational pickets. In 2005 the union sought to consolidate four employee groups into one bargaining unit. The Federal Labor Relations Authority agreed with the consolidation and the Union was certified to bargain for the 1000 NLRB employees. Following the vote, Meisburg sent out an email in which he said he would not bargain with the NLRBU and would instead tie the dispute up in Federal Circuit Courts – a process that could take years to work out. Meisburg was a recess appointment of President George W. Bush in January of 2006. The Senate eventually confirmed his appointment in August of 2006.

By Jesse Russell

California Nurses Association-represented employers have been put on notice. The union represents more than 30,000 workers, included a majority of registered nurses. Those workers signed a pledge to strike any employer that tries to take advantage of a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that re-categorizes many nurses as supervisors - thereby eliminating their right to collectively bargain. The CNA represents nurses throughout the country.

As organized labor gears up to the appeal the recent National Labor Relations Board ruling that broaden the definition of supervisor, Jesse Russell takes a look at the historical timeline leading up to the decision:

By Jesse Russell

When the Taft Hartley Act was adopted by Congress in 1947 it included a provision that protected lead workers from being classified as supervisors. Nearly 50 years later that long standing definition, upheld by courts and previous incarnations of the board has been over turned. In the past decade the NLRB has attempted to classify the workers twice, but both times the Supreme Court has rejected that definition. Fred Feinstein, counsel to the NLRB for the Clinton administration explains:

By Doug Cunningham

FedEx has until July 14th to answer an National Labor Relations Board charge that the company engaged in a pattern of illegal anti-union actions against its workers in New Jersey. The NLRB-issued complaint says FedEx fired some workers trying to organize a union, threatened others and promised preferential treatment for workers who voted against the union. Jerald Cureton, a lawyer representing the workers, says the NLRB scheduled a hearing on this charge for July 31st. FedEx workers at the Barrington, New Jersey terminal are the first FedEx workers in the country to go un

By Jesse Russell

The inflatable rat has been used by labor unions for over 10 years as a symbol of unfair practices at a building or construction site. There have been a number of lawsuits filed by companies against unions over the use of the rats saying they were the functional equivalent of picketing. Mostly the lawsuits were defeated but in June a decision by the
National Labor Relations Board ruled just that.

Rebecca Myles has more:

The recent ruling by the NLRB’s administrative law judges is being appealed by labor groups, who argue the First Amendment protects its activities, in the same way that passing out handbills is considered free speech.

A worker at a Starbucks in New York City is claiming she was fired for encouraging others to join a union. Sarah Bender was a barista at the 17th Street and 1st Avenue store. She says she became interested in joining the Retail Workers Union, a branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, after she heard about successes at the Madison Ave and 36th Street shop. The battle on Madison Avenue has led to Starbucks being called before the National Labor Relations Board on charges of union busting and threatening employees. Bender says once she brought up unions with her coworkers, similar actions occurred.

An important neutrality agreement has been recognized by the labor relations board. An unfair labor practice charge filed by a group called the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation against the United Auto Workers and auto parts maker Dana Corporation was thrown out by the NLRB late last week. The UAW and Dana have a neutrality agreement that allows workers to decide whether or not they are in favor of union representation. If the majority of workers in a Dana facility sign union cards, then the company will recognize the UAW. The Right to Work attorneys claimed Dana illegally bargained with the union before workers had a chance to vote. The board said it found no instances of illegal bargaining.

When the National Labor Relations Board was created decades ago it’s mission was to carry out the national policy of encouraging collective bargaining and union protections for workers under national labor law that guaranteed workers’ union rights. AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt says unions are doing everything they can to avoid the NLRB under Bush administration control because the board has been turned into a weapon against workers…

[John Hiatt]: “ What has been going on at the labor board I think accounts for an awful lot of the explanation for why more and more unions are just being driven away from using the agency that is supposed to be protecting workers in their right to choose to have a union.”

An anti-union group is going after the UAW over the auto worker's neutrality agreement arrangements with some auto parts suppliers. The UAW is using those agreements for the companies to stay out of union organizing drives with some success. An anti-union group charges that the UAW and the auto manufacturers are teaming up to unduly pressure auto parts suppliers to go union in violation of federal labor law. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation has support from corporate backers, including Walmart's Walton family. It's alleging that in several cases the UAW and auto parts suppliers reached agreements to unionize before a majority of workers signed union cards. These neutrality agreements are proving to be effective union organizing tools and if the agreements can be ruled illegal it would be another blow to union organizing. The Republican controlled National Labor Relations Board will decide the issue.

Another win for workers as CUNA Mutual credit union loses to the union at the National Labor Relations Board and in a corporate campaign. The Office and Professional Employees International Union, OPEIU, has been told by CUNA Mutual that the company will agree to stop illegal labor practices like spying on the union, bad-faith bargaining, and threatening employees with lockouts and layoffs in response to the union¹s successful corporate campaign. OPEIU Local 39 Business Manager John Peterson says with this win, workers will go back into talks with the company to settle new contract terms.

[John Peterson 1]: "We're planning to sit down with company very soon - next week or so - to negotiate hopefully a conclusion to these very long contract negotiations."

It's been a rough start to the year for Starbucks. In Florida, a federal court judge granted collective action status to a lawsuit filed by two managers who say they are entitled to overtime pay because they are actually "glorified baristas" and not true managers. The status gives the attorneys filing the suit permission to find other managers throughout the country who have similar complaints. Meanwhile in New York City, workers represented by the Industrial Workers of the World watched as the National Labor Relations Board agreed with their charges that the coffee chain has been "interfering with, restraining and coercing employees" who have attempted to unionize.

[Gross1]: The labor board also alleges in their complaint that Starbucks made outright bribes, created the impression of surveillance and much, much more.

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.

After calling an end to a three week long strike, workers trying to return to CNH Global plants in the Midwest have been told to go home. The construction equipment maker declared contract negotiations deadlocked on Monday. Only salaried and replacement workers were allowed to return to the plants in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. And members of the United Auto Workers returned to the picket lines. The union says it has shown that it wants to return to the bargaining table and have filed a complaint over the lockout with the National Labor Relations Board. CNH says it offered a final contract o

The National Labor Relations Board will hear a case today concerning Wal-Mart auto shop workers who have expressed interest in forming a union. Nine of 17 workers at the Wal-Mart Supercenter Tire and Lube Express in Loveland, Colorado submitted cards to the board. The attempt at organizing a small part of the store indicates a new strategy by the United Food and Commercial Workers in getting through the anti-union wall of the world's largest retail chain. The union insists that the auto shop is separate from the rest of the store and can therefore organize. When meat cutters at a Wal-Mart store in Texas won union certification in 2000, the company reacted by closing all of it's meat cutting departments countrywide.

The right of US workers to organize was dealt a major blow today as the National Labor Relations Board ruled temporary workers will no longer be able to collectively bargain with their permanent-status co-workers. The three Bush-appointed NLRB members argued that temporary employees are different than permanent workers. The two dissenting board members said this essentially puts the right to collectively bargain in the employer's hands - excluding a growing temp workforce from the benefits of union representation. The 2.5 million temporary workers in the US will now only be allowed to organiz

The second-largest union at Boeing has filed a unfair labor complaint against the company. Filed by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace last Monday, the complaint accuses the company of violating a settlement related to its employee incentive plan. The union believes the plan is a anti-union program as the company has in the past said it is limited to non-union employees. The complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board asks the company to refrain from applying the incentive program only to non-union employees.

German owned T-Mobile has been accused of discriminating against union workers in the United States. When the FCC required Cingular to sell a portion of its California network to T-Mobile, 100 unionized workers were fired. In order to get their jobs back, these workers must apply through a hiring agency, which makes them ineligible for union membership and employment benefits. No legal charges have yet been filed. International protests against the treatment have been voiced by Union Network International, an organization that represents more than 15 million workers worldwide. Stateside, the Communication Workers of America have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

Nurses in the twin cities were victims of "economic warfare" according to the National Labor Relations Board. Upholding a 2002 ruling, the NLRB says that 23 nurses should be rewarded lost wages after they were refused employment while on strike against Fairview Health Services. The Minnesota Nurses Association brought the case in 2001 after it learned that the nurses were turned down for jobs at hospitals. The hospitals admitted refusing to hire the nurses, saying that because they negotiate the nurses' contracts jointly they could legally apply economic pressure. The hospitals are considering a second appeal to the most recent decision.