Thousands of Workers Rally to Condemn the Bush Labor Board's Massive Assault on Workers

Nationwide Protest to Condemn the Anti-Worker Rulings of the NLRB

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 15, 2007

CONTACT:
Greg Denier
Noreen Nielsen
202-721-0660

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thousands of workers, activists, civil rights and religious leaders took to the streets today outside National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) offices across the nation to protest the Bush administration’s massive assault on workers rights. In September 2007, the Bush-appointed majority of the NLRB issued a sweeping set of decisions – the September Massacre – stripping workers of their most basic rights and protections. Change to Win union members and leaders participated in rallies and marches to protest the blatantly biased board decisions in over 20 cities across the country, from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, California.

“The purpose of the NLRB is to protect the right of workers to bargain collectively for better wages, benefits and working conditions,” said Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director of Change to Win. “Like all other Bush administration agencies, the NLRB is putting corporate interests before public interest. It’s time to demand an end to this government-sanctioned assault that has put the American Dream at risk for American workers.”

The Bush Labor Board is the most anti-worker labor board in decades. The “September Massacre” established new rules that: make it harder to form a union, but easier to get rid of existing unions; allow unrestrained corporate abuse of workers who exercise their rights; and eliminate any effective remedy for illegal employer conduct.

With fewer and fewer workers able to exercise their right to have a union, the result is unprecedented income and wealth inequality, stagnant wages and more Americans without health insurance or retirement benefits. And for the first time ever, Americans don’t believe the next generation will be better off.

The seven unions and six million members of Change to Win issued a declaration condemning the Bush Labor Board decisions and demanding a return to the principles of our basic labor law – to protect worker rights and to give workers a free and fair opportunity to improve their lives by bargaining collectively through their unions. A copy of the declaration is below.

Declaration Condemning Bush Labor Board Decisions And Demanding a Return to the Principles of the NLRA

In a massive assault on workers, the Bush-appointed majority of the National Labor Relations Board issued a sweeping set of decisions in September 2007 – the September Massacre – denying basic worker rights and protections with blatantly biased decision-making. Through these and prior decisions, the Bush Board has violated its statutory duty to protect workers and has instead subordinated the public interest to corporate interests.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) declares that it is “the policy of the United States” to encourage “the practice and procedure of collective bargaining” and to protect “the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing.” The Act promotes the economic well-being of workers by counter-balancing the power of large corporate employers with worker organizations.

The Bush Board’s September decisions strip workers of their rights. They establish new rules that deny workers the right to organize through freely signed authorization cards but allow employers to withdraw recognition based on identical or even less reliable signed writings.

They make it harder to obtain effective remedies against illegal employer conduct and cheaper for employers to violate the law; easier for employers to discriminate against employees or job applicants who are also union organizers; easier for employers to deny jobs to employees who exercise their right to strike; easier for employers to file lawsuits in retaliation against protected union activity; and easier for employers to target union supporters for layoffs. More than half of the cases demonstrate delays of four to as much as eighteen years, many without final remedies even now.

This government-sanctioned assault has put the American Dream at risk for American workers. Today, fewer and fewer workers are able to exercise their right to have a union. The result is unprecedented income and wealth inequality, stagnant wages and more Americans without health insurance or retirement benefits. And for the first time, Americans don’t believe the next generation will be better off.

We condemn the Bush Board’s anti-worker decisions. It is time to return to responsible, non-partisan decision-making and to the principles embodied in the Act that many of us have spent a lifetime upholding.

We declare our support for the fundamental principle that worker rights are human rights. It is just as objectionable to allow corporations to pursue a so-called “union-free workplace” as it would be to allow corporations to establish a woman-free workplace or a minority-free workplace. It is time to restore the fundamental principles of our basic labor law -- to protect worker rights and to give workers a free and fair opportunity to improve their lives by bargaining collectively through their unions.