NLRB Refuses Oral Arguments in Key Workers' Rights Cases
The American Rights at Work Workers' Rights Watch reports that the National Labor Relations Board is refusing to hold public hearings on several important cases involving workers' right to organize. The outcomes could potentially affect the rights of millions of Americans.
According to Workers' Right Watch:
The five-member Board is considering three cases which could strip millions of workers -- including nurses, quality control inspectors, sales representatives, and many others -- of their rights to form a union and collectively bargain. Yet despite the great significance of the ruling . . . the Board is refusing to hold public hearings on the matter . . . .
In three pending cases, Oakwood Healthcare, Golden Crest Healthcare, and Croft Metals, the Board will put forth its new test for determining who is a supervisor. The new test is supposed to be based on factors such as the use of independent judgment in directing employees, the amount of time spent supervising, and changes in the workplace giving employees greater autonomy. Once the three cases are decided, 135 cases pending at the Board will move forward, extending the impact of the Board's decision to a wide range of occupations and affecting millions of workers . . . .In July 2004, the Board ruled that graduate teaching and research assistants were not covered under the NLRA, arguing that their status as students superseded their role as employees. In September 2004, the Board ruled that disabled persons receiving rehabilitative services are also not eligible to form unions under the NLRA. Two months later, temporary employees were barred from organizing unless they had the permission of both their employer and temp agency. The . . . majority then went on to strip organizing rights from artists' models and newspaper carriers. And earlier this year, the majority ruled that employees of a private nonprofit that performs quasi-public functions are public employees, without coverage by the NLRA.
These recent decisions diminishing coverage of the NLRA do not bode well for the millions of employees that could be deemed supervisors by this Board. Furthermore, the Board's decision to rule on these crucial cases behind closed doors indicates that its members have little respect for longstanding procedural practices.