RESPECT Bill Would Restore Important Rights of Workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/23/respect-bill-would-restore-important-rights-of-workers/

RESPECT Bill Would Restore Important Rights of Workers

by James Parks, Mar 23, 2007

One of the major contributors to the middle-class squeeze is the difficulty workers face when trying to join together and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. That freedom has been further reduced by several misguided decisions by the Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which eroded the ability of millions of workers to exercise their freedom to join unions.

Late yesterday, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House and Senate that would begin to reverse some of the most egregious of those NLRB decisions. The Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act would reverse a Republican party-line NLRB vote in September 2006 to slash long-time federal labor law protections of workers’ freedom to form unions.

The RESPECT Act would clarify the National Labor Relations Act to ensure it is not misinterpreted or undermined on a fundamental question of coverage.

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee (HELP), and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced the bill, along with Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Don Young (R-Alaska).

Jay Witter of the United American Nurses (UAN) says Young agreed to co-sponsor the bill after meeting with two UAN members from his home state. The nurses explained the detrimental impact of the NLRB decision on the 6,000 nurses in Alaska and their patients. During the meeting, Young agreed that the NLRB decision undermined workers’ ability to form unions and agreed to be an original co-sponsor.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

The RESPECT Act will right a wrong done to millions of Americans when the Bush-dominated labor board stripped away their right to bargain for better wages and benefits.

The NLRB rulings came in three cases, collectively known as the Oakwood decisions after the lead case, Oakwood Healthcare Inc., which reinterpreted the definition of “supervisor” in a way that greatly expanded the number and types of workers that may be classified as supervisors.

FULL story at link.

[bobbie]

1. Thanks for reporting on this important subject

It's about time someone started to protect our right to unionize.
The NLRB is a hostile joke.

And if Americans don't see how life is under the thumb of corporations without the clout of a union, then they're hopeless. Furthermore, if they don't see that much of the bashing of "communism" and "socialism" in recent decades is really about ridding the capitalist world of unions, then they're blind.

The capitalists want slaves. When they have all the power they have slaves.