National Labor Relations Board Poised to Strip Workers' Rights

Board Refuses to Hear Oral Arguments

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), currently dominated by pro-corporate Bush-appointees, will soon decide three cases that could further attack workers’ rights in America. The NLRB may broaden the definition of a “supervisor” to include skilled workers who assign or direct the work of others—whether or not they are actually part of management—thereby further stripping from these workers their legal protections under the National Labor Relations Act. Three cases before the NLRB, known as the “Kentucky River” cases, will decide the future rights and freedoms for millions of workers.

The federal labor board is poised to revoke the legal right to union protection through this new class of “supervisor.” Any workers who have shown a colleague how to perform a task or asked a co-worker to do something to help then finish their own job could find their federal labor protections at risk – including the right to join a union in the first place. If they rule to expand the definition, hundreds of thousands of workers could lose their right to form a union and join with their co-workers to bargain collectively for a better life.

In a 2001 recent Supreme Court case, NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care, the justices ruled, 5–4, that six nurses at the Caney Creek Developmental Complex in Pippa Passes, Ky., were supervisors. A series of three cases before the board, the so-called “Kentucky River” cases, revolve around whether the NLRB will interpret the ruling to mean that they have broad authority to declare workers to be “supervisors” and therefore ineligible for union protections. The three cases are Oakwood Healthcare, Inc.; Golden Crest Healthcare Center; and Croft Metal, Inc. The first two cases involve “charge” nurses in a hospital and long term care facility. The last case involves “leadmen” and “load supervisors” at a manufacturing facility.

The precedent set in these cases could affect workers in virtually every industry, including those in the entertainment industry. Eventually, anyone whose job duties include overseeing any kind of work could be denied the right to join a union. The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute estimates that up to 8 million workers could lose their right to join a union and bargain collectively. In the IA, experienced staff on sets and at venues could be declared supervisors and denied union protections because they provide guidance to less experienced crew members or direction to other crafts. This is just another case of the Bush-appointed NLRB working to strip the power of working people by excluding many from union eligibility while cutting the bargaining power of those who remain.

Adding insult to injury, the NLRB is refusing to hear oral arguments in the case, despite requests by unions to hear arguments. In fact, the Board has not heard a single oral argument since the Bush administration took office. Not only are they readying to deny union membership to, potentially, millions of Americans – they are doing so without allowing the oral arguments that are a fundamental part of any due process.

Everyone with an interest in protecting workers against efforts by the government and corporations to strip them of their freedoms is urged to contact their representatives and senators today and tell them to ask the NLRB to hold oral arguments on these crucial cases so that workers have a voice.