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Left Turns

Vetoing the Rights of Workers

On Tuesday, the president vetoed a bicameral resolution that would have blocked the National Labor Relation Board’s ambush election rule. By vetoing the measure, the president has signed off on a radical regulatory scheme that will:

  • Restrict the right of employers to speak to employees during a union organizing campaign;
              
  • Undermine the right of employees to make an informed decision in union elections;
                           
  • Threaten the privacy and safety of workers and their families;
                             
  • Deny workers, employers, and union leaders a fair union election process.


As the editors at the Wall Street Journal note:


President Obama did another giant favor for his friends in organized labor. He used his presidential authority to scupper a legislative challenge to the National Labor Relations Board’s ambush-election rule …

From now on unions will have unlimited time to prepare their campaigns to organize a workplace, springing the election paperwork on an employer when they figure they have the best chance to prevail … The quickie rule also forces the employer to give the union personal information about employees, including personal cell phone numbers and email addresses. So much for employee privacy rights.


Fred Wszolek of the Workforce Fairness Institute echoed these concerns:


President Obama has once again demonstrated where his real loyalties lie. Instead of listening to the American people’s elected representatives in Congress and acting to protect our jobs, Obama has sided with union bosses yet again in their mission to railroad workers and small businesses.


Of course, this isn’t the first time the president has chosen to stand with Big Labor instead of America’s workers and job creators. This is the same labor board that has:


Fortunately, Congress will continue to oppose the NLRB’s ambush election rule and other efforts by this activist agency that hurt hard-working Americans. As Chairman Kline noted in response to the president’s veto:


This fight isn’t over. Congress will continue to oppose this radical assault on workers and employers, and we will continue to demand a fair union election process.


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