Craig Becker Nominated to the NLRB
President Obama sent his nominations for the three empty seats on the NLRB to the Senate on July 9, 2009. One of the three, Craig Becker, is currently the Associate General Counsel for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Although Mr. Becker has much labor law experience, he has some extreme ideas for reforming labor law, many of which would involve stripping employers of many long-established protections.
In 1993, Mr. Becker wrote an article for the Minnesota Law Review, Democracy in the Workplace: Union Representation Elections and Federal Labor Law, 77 Minn. L. Rev. 495 (Feb. 1993), in which he claims that the current union election process is flawed and proposes wholesale changes to fix them.
For example, Mr. Becker proposes that “employers should be stripped of any legally cognizable interest in their employees’ election of representatives.” This would m ean an employer would lose its right to participate in hearings before the Board to resolve issues related to the election, or even to have an observer present at the election, among other things. Mr. Becker proposes eliminating the 72-year-old mandate of the Taft-Hartley Act that the Board certify unions based only on the results of an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election. Mr. Becker also proposes restricting, and in some cases eliminating, an employer’s “free speech” rights during an election campaign, although the right is spelled out in the Act. In short, Mr. Becker would go further than even EFCA .
What is most disturbing, back in 1993, Mr. Becker, then writing as an academic, suggested that many of his drastic “reforms” could be accomplished through the Labor Board’s re-interpretation of the Act. He would sidestep legislation while kicking over the traces. Now, Mr. Becker is poised to take his seat on the Board where he could try to effectuate his ideas.
We do not know whether the Senate will conduct hearings on Mr. Becker’s nomination before voting on his confirmation, although the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on July 24, requested the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee do exactly that. R. Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, said, in a letter to HELP’s chairman and ranking member, that SEIU “has a record of using questionable pressure tactics with the goal of forcing employers and workers to recognize unions without the democratic protection of secret ballot elections.” He cited SEIU's “intense advocacy” of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act and said Becker might attempt through Board decisions to impose card-check certification and “the effective elimination of secret ballots.”
In early-August, a Republican staffer reportedly said Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.), HELP’S ranking member, wants a hearing on all three NLRB nominees. However, HELP so far has not announced any plans for a hearing and has not yet scheduled a vote.
We will keep you advised as the confirmation process progresses.
As someone who has been dealing with labor unions for most of my 25 years in Human Resources, I can honestly say that the EFCA is one of the worst labor laws I've ever heard of. It's bad enough that the unions have a disproportionate advantage during organizing attempts, with companies' efforts to remain union free strictly limited; now the government wants to take away the only tool left in our box; freedom of choice for the employee, through the time honored American tradition of the secret ballot.
I've dealt with numerous unions, good and bad and I have successfully defeated at least 6 organizing attempts at previous employers and have seen the union organizers use lies, half truths, empty promises, threats and bullying tactics to fool or intimidate honest, hard working people into signing the cards. I've also seen the sabotage, strong-arm tactics, assaults and blackmail which is the last ditch effort of union organizers on the verge of losing an organizing effort. Without the secret ballot, all companies will be at risk of having their workforce organized, whether their employees want it or not and worse…the government will be denying Americans their basic right to a secret ballot..
Let's face facts; unions have become a big business in and of themselves. They are structured like any other interstate business except that their source of revenue is the dues paid weekly or monthly by honest, hard working Americans. They have been losing membership and revenue over the past 20 years and for good reason; working conditions and pay have improved and employees no longer NEED union representation. The EFCA is their best chance to force their way back into businesses and profitability.
If the Obama administration is intent of passing the EFCA, then they should give business owners an equal footing with the unions. They should impose the exact same restrictions on union organizers as they do on businesses when they deal with organizing attempts.