NLRB Decides Fate of Millions of Workers

Behind closed doors, the fate of millions of America's workers will be decided by the National Labor Relations Board. 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 Republican majority of the Board is refusing to hold public hearings on the matter.

Stripping union rights from millions of professional and technical workers affects not only the workers but the broader public as well.

Given the wide implications of these supervisory cases, the Board should be holding public hearings to hear from affected parties. Indeed, between 1980 and 2000, the Board held oral arguments in 23 significant cases, holding at least four in every five-year period during that time.5 Yet since the Bush Board took over in 2001, it has not held a single oral argument.6

By refusing to hold oral arguments in the supervisor cases, will the Board members simply apply predetermined ideology to the ruling? If the recent decisions of the Republican majority of the Board reveal an ideology, it's one that denies workers their right to organize.

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/.../eye7_2006.cfm