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‘It’s Time To Close The NLRB For Renovations’

Unions

According to The Hill, unions and their Democrats in Congress are apoplectic over the fact that Brian Hayes, the lone Republican on Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board, has (allegedly) threatened to resign in protest over the union appointees at the NLRB deciding on Wednesday (Nov. 30th) to force ambush elections on companies and their employees. Due to a Supreme Court decision, where the high court ruled there must be a minimum three NLRB members to affect a quorum, with only three current members, a resignation at the NLRB would incapacitate the union-run agency.

Notwithstanding Democrats fleeing from their jobs in Wisconsin earlier this year, oddly, neither the union bosses nor their paid shills in Congress seem to realize (or if they do, they’re not publicly admitting it) that the idea of incapacitating the NLRB came from their own playbook.

Referencing the August open letter in which NLRB member Brian Hayes was urged to resign because though his resignation, “…the NLRB will become incapacitated—unable to wreak any more havoc on America’s job creators,” the Hill reports:

The labor movement is crying foul over a resignation threat from a member of the National Labor Relations Board that would effectively quash a long-sought change to union election rules.

[snip]

The backlash to Hayes’s threat from unions has been intense, as a long-held goal of simplifying and speeding up union elections would be stopped in its tracks by the maneuver. [Emphasis added.]

Well, that would be the point, wouldn’t it? Since unions are legally allowed to mislead workers into unionizing and already win over 60% of the NLRB-conducted elections anyway, they really don’t need more help in crippling or killing businesses trying to create jobs.

This past Wednesday, Congressman George Miller [D-CA] sent the lone Republican at the NLRB an accusatory letter and document request inferring that NLRB-Member Brian Hayes may have had “private requests or enticements that you may have received to resign prematurely, threaten to do so, or otherwise obstruct or incapacitate the Board…”

From Miller’s letter:

These open calls for you to cripple the Board began at least as early as August 2011. The website LaborUnionReport.com urged you “to resign your position as a member of the National Labor Relations Board,” asserting that “[i]f you resign your position, the NLRB will become incapacitated.” LaborUnionReport.com added that “your resignation will help incapacitate the NLRB until after the 2012 elections.”

As Investor’s Business Daily noted on Wednesday:

It is hard to see on what basis this claim was made. As examples of “improper influence” Miller’s letter cites a posting on the anti-union website LaborUnionReport.com and a public comment by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, both NLRB critics who have urged that Hayes step down to deny it a quorum. That’s it. There is no indication that Hayes corresponded with either or was even aware of their comments. Neither could be reached for comment.

Miller’s spokesman, Aaron Albright, could cite no other evidence of any other groups trying to influence Hayes. Nor could he say what rules or laws would have been violated if Hayes had contact with them. Nevertheless, he said the committee needed to probe all of Hayes’ communications to see if he was given any “inducements” to quit.

It appears as though either Miller or his staff did not do their homework or, perhaps, they didn’t get their fact sheets from the AFL-CIO straight, since the reference to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley “calling on” Hayes to resign was, in actuality, a response to a Daily Caller reporter’s question.

“I would support anything that would disband the NLRB,” Haley said in response to a question from The Daily Caller asking if she would back calls for Hayes to resign.

Oddly enough, what seems to have escaped both the unions who are crying ‘foul,’ as well as Democrats like George Miller is that the call for Brian Hayes to resign was entirely inspired by their own actions, beginning in 2007.

The Hill piece from Friday quotes several union spokesman upset with the possibility that Hayes would deny them their ability to trick more people into unions through ambush elections.

The most egregiously hypocritical quote, however, comes from the SEIU:

We think it’s really terrible to shut down a government agency over ideology,” Peter Colavito, director of government relations for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told The Hill. “I’m really struggling to find precedent for this. It’s really an outrage as an attack on workers’ rights.”

Apparently, not a single union “spokesman” or union-bought Democrat remembers 2007, when unions had “thousands” of union protesters calling for the NLRB to be shut down?

The Nashville action was one of more than 20 held around the nation as thousands of union members said it is time for the labor board to be “closed for renovations” until a pro-worker board is appointed.

Apparently, not a single union “spokesman” or union-bought Democrat remembers union bosses attacking the NLRB, as when the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff stated that “this Board needs to be shut down!”

Apparently, not a single union “spokesman” or union-bought Democrat remembers United Mine Workers’ boss Cecil Roberts’ rant on the NLRB?

And, who (except union bosses and their Democrat politicians) could forget this little diddy from the union protests outside the NLRB offices in Portland?

Apparently, not a single union “spokesman” or union-bought Democrat remembers the Senate (in coordination with union bosses) blocking President Bush’s NLRB appointments until 2009, thereby crippling the Board until Barack Obama could appoint his union-picked appointees to radically alter the labor relations landscape in America?

Apparently, not a single union “spokesman” or union-bought Democrat realizes that calling for Brian Hayes to resign (whether he does or not) is merely using their own set of rules against them?

Well, you get the point, don’t you?

Congressman Miller stated in his letter to NLRB Member Hayes that “the Board is an independent federal agency that administers and enforces the National Labor Relations Act for both employers and employees.” Given the union extremism of the union appointees within the Obama NLRB, Miller’s narrative is disingenuous, at best.

This is why, as unions said only a few years ago: “It’s time to close the NLRB for renovations.”

Member Hayes: Let Them Whine, It’s Time To Resign.

A Final Note to Congressman Miller: Since 19 out of the top 20 of your contributors are unions, the reference in your letter to “special interest organizations and individuals” calling on Hayes to resign is fascinatingly hypocritical. Further, if by exercising the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and calling, in an open letter, for a government official to resign is what you consider “improper influence” from a “special interest organization,” you may have forgotten the Constitution you swore to uphold. Lastly, Congressman, LaborUnionReport.com is not “owned” by Kulture, LLC—they are two legally separate entities—and no one from either entity has ever met, spoken to, or even been in the same room as Brian Hayes.

Related:

______________

“Socialism has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy.” Samuel Gompers, 1918

Let’s just file this one under Union Hypocrisy, shall we?

Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com

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COMMENTS

  • izoneguy

    Shutting down the NLRB would be sweet

  • donald_24

    So Obama will just recess appoint a new member to the NLRB if the Republican on the board resigns.

    • earlgrey

      I don’t think he can do it.

      That was one of the reasons that they wanted to do this by November 30th before one of the Dem members was set to leave.

      • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

        I’m not sure whether explicitly through this, or else as fallout from their refusal to allow Congress to formally adjourn until the Democrats pass a budget in the Senate. Either way, they’re holding up recess appointments generally – and also as part of the war over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, so this 11/30 deadline is actually real.

        • donald_24

          The Constitution gives the president the right to adjourn Congress. If Obama wanted to pull a fast one, he could adjourn Congress and make all the recess appointments he wants. I don’t beleive for a second that the NLRB will be crippled if the GOP member resigns.

          “He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.”

          The key phrase: “he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper;”

          • smagar

            No offense, but I’m going with LUR here.

          • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

            …for a quorum. In January, the recess appointment of SEIU-appointee Craig Becker runs out, which means the NLRB will become incapacitated anyway.

            If Hayes resigns, then it merely expedites the incapacitation and makes it impossible for the Board to issue new rulings or decisions…as long as there are no more recess appointments and that is up to the parliamentarians in Congress to sort out.

        • skipfoss

          The best thing that could happen is to shut the unions down and get them out of the picture altogether. My old man was one of the guy’s that fought to get the teamsters started ,he would fight to the death for his union,then one day he had an accident that nearly killed him and his co driver,because of faulty equipment and a illegal load.The company had put a large generator in the trailor and was not properly secured as they entered into a steep curve the generator shifted broke the fifth whel off of the truck and caused the truck to roll.The HWP of new York wrote up the report and cited the company for faulty eguipment and illegal load,but when Dad went to the Union (Hoffa sr) they sided with the companyDad appealed his case and it went to washington. Hoffa told dad to drop it or he may have an accident,he didn’t and the thugs blew up what they thought was our house but they got the house on the other corner across the street ,luckaly no one was home ,ao as far as I’m concerned the unions ,ALL of them can go to hell because they are all under the same old bunch,they are nothing but thugs and overpaid theives. Don’t like what I said ,Tough shit skpfoss@aol.com

          • radman

            skipfoss: Keep telling the facts about the way that unions operate…by threat and intimidation…to damage the free market and coercively extract money from their members to support leftist politicians.

            The bottom line is this:

  • earlgrey

    he did get the idea from Labor Union Report blog. Is this guy suggesting Hayes is being bribed.

    I am not saying he got the idea from you, but I dont’ understand why it would be a big deal if he did. That happens all the time.

    This isn’t a patent filing we are talking about/

  • youngsterz

    Outstanding work, LaborUnionReport. Ever since your post from 3 months ago encouraging Hayes to step down, effectively paralyzing the NLRB, whenever there is a story about the latest abuse of NLRB power, I think (EVERY time) about your post and ask myself when Hayes would take action by removing himself from the action.

    I hope he has the cojones to stick to his guns and refuse to participate. Hold tight and don’t allow any more 11th hour monkey business until Becker is out after the first of the year. And would it be a bad thing to have the NLRB completely neutralized for the next year? Heck no. Keep the recess appointments off the table, and let it hibernate for a year until we can restore some sanity to Washington.

    And it goes without saying that the blatant hypocrisy by George Miller is astounding in its boldness, yet at the same time, not surprising. He is completely owned by the unions.

    The union bosses and their liberal congress stooges are all a bunch of whiny, spoiled children who feel like they should get all of the cookies, all of the time, and if they don’t, they cry about how unfair the world is, without a clue about how hard Mom & Dad work in order to just pay the bills.

    Carry on, LUR, carry on. . . .

  • donald_24

    Even if the GOP member resigns, the current cases it has brought will not stop. Since the Boeing case was brought forward by the NLRB’s general cousel rather than the entire board, the case can still proceeed. They just can’t bring forth any new cases.

    • westcoastpatriette

      next Wednesday–and that is the main point of this diary, donald_24.

      And that in itself is reason enough for Hayes to resign. I hope he follows and does it. Let the Dems go apoplectic over their own medicine.

      • westcoastpatriette

        ,,,

  • smagar

    If he wants to, at some point he’ll have to subject himself to some media questioning. He’ll have to explain, justify and sell his position. That means he’ll need to show (a) evidence of culpability by Brian Hayes and (b) sound reasoning on his part.

    From what I can tell, Rep. Miller has neither a nor b. Moreover, he’s probably smart enough to know that.

    Yes, I agree that our MSM is hoping for Democratic success at the polls. Nevertheless, no one wants to be shown to be the fool.

    If a reputable MSM organ interviewed Rep. Miller, and conveniently forgot to ask him about the questions LUR has raised here—in short order the conservative blogosphere will out them.

    In the old days, Rep. Miller could count on the MSM’s silence. He could get a (ahem) “twisted version of the truth” started on its run around the world, secure in the knowledge that the MSM would hide truth’s shoes in the meantime. He can’t do that anymore. I suspect he knows that, and I’m SURE the MSM knows it (cough cough Rathergate).

    My guess is. Rep. Miller did this to placate his union handlers.

    Of course, if he wants to run this up the flagpole, he should. We can saw the pole off.

  • tngal

    Illinois wasn’t it? They didn’t want to vote on their state bill. It wasn’t one lawmaker that left but the whole damn lot. Here we have one guy who knows his stuff. Guess two (parties) can play at that game.

    Those guys (the ones from the illogical side of the tracks) are going to have to learn what goes around comes around. The earth is on an axis and it rotates like that. Who knew?

  • nathanalbright

    ….as long as the recess appointments can be stopped.

  • hitthedeck

    The experts of mob tactics and dirty politics are the main talent of organized labor unions. They work hand in hand with the American communist party and left wing organizations. They are supported by the Democratic Party and are starting a social war for General Obama. They are now sitting in government offices dictating forced union participation on companies and states that have (Right to Work laws) they are constitutionally illegal but have imbedded their forces with government agencies for stealthy ways to enforce their agenda. They should be purged from government and their business should be with American business only. The government has no right to force Union participation on the working man or woman. Unions should not have the right to use member dues to support one political party over the other. A union member is held hostage to the union bosses for the job he or she is holding. That alone is illegal but the progressives have twisted the law to make the unions immune from fair treatment of their members. The Union powers must be purged from government. The days of the unions are over to improve relations between employees and management. Any violation in the work force can be settled in a court of law. It is fact that companies who abuse the employee with wage decimations, safety standards or benefits have paid multi million dollar settlements. What can a union do that a lawyer can