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Doing Harm to America’s Workers
October 5. 2006
Workers' rights have been severely crippled. On Tuesday, President Bush's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — "easily the most anti-worker labor board in history" — issued a decision that will deny the right to organize to as many as 8 million workers in 200 occupations. Under the Taft-Hartley Act, "supervisors" in an organization are prohibited from joining unions. In a party-line vote of the five-member NLRB, the three Bush appointees voted to broadly interpret who can be called a supervisor, extending to someone who "spends as little as 10 to 15 percent of his or her time overseeing the work of others." AFL-CIO President John Sweeney noted, "The rights of anyone who spends 7 hours and 10 minutes a day on routine duties and 50 minutes on 'supervisory functions' are at risk." In a blistering dissent, the two board members appointed by former President Clinton warned that the ruling "threatens to create a new class of workers under Federal labor law: workers who have neither the genuine prerogatives of management, nor the statutory rights of ordinary employees."
- The decision is far out of step with the reality of the workplace. The 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act were never meant to exclude professional workers who have no power to hire, fire, or discipline employees. But that's exactly what the NLRB ruled on Tuesday. In 2001, Supreme Court — with Justice Antonin Scalia writing for the majority — forced the board to reexamine the definition of "supervisor," ruling that the definition set by the then-Clinton appointee-dominated board was too strict. But as the AFL-CIO's Stewart Acuff points out, Tuesday's Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. ruling goes "far beyond the clear intent of Congress, far beyond NLRB precedent, far more than necessary to comply with the Supreme Court's 2001 Kentucky River decision that gave rise to the ruling, and far out of step with workplace reality."
- This ruling will also exacerbate the care crisis in America. By 2015, all 50 states will experience a shortage of nurses. Already the shortage has affected medical treatment. A recent study in the Health Affairs medical journal "found 6,700 patient deaths and 4 million days of hospital care could be avoided each year by increasing staff of registered nurses." The NLRB's ruling in Oakwood will directly affect nurses, classifying more as supervisors ineligible for union protection. The NLRB determined that less unionization definitely won't help recruit more nurses or improve healthcare. Acuff notes, "Nurse unions lead the way in advocating for lower patient-to-nurse ratios and limits on mandatory excessive overtime, both of which have major consequences for patient care.”
- There are major consequences to eliminating workers’ rights. "Middle class families are struggling to pay for a home, health insurance, transportation, and their children's college education due to a weak labor market and sharply higher prices, despite an economic recovery well into its fifth year," concludes a new report by the Center for American Progress. In the first quarter of 2006, families had to spend 13.9 percent of their disposable income — the largest share since 1980 — to service their debt. A majority of today's workers say the number one issue they face is that the wages they are paid are not keeping up with the cost of living. Yet productivity — as Bush likes to frequently point out — remain high. De-unionization accounts for 15 percent of the increase in wage inequality among men over the past quarter-century, according to David Card of the University of California at Berkeley. Today, the vast majority of union members — 84 percent — live in only 12 states, leaving workers with little organized power in much of the country. But despite internal struggles in the past, union leaders are now making moves to unite and mobilize workers around "pocketbook" issues. Tell Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which would establish harsh penalties for employers who harass workers while they are attempting to organize.
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