Not-so-minor caveat here: This guy is a member of Boeing’s board of directors, as was new White House chief of staff Bill Daley. If you’re wondering why The One has uncharacteristically refrained from pandering to his union bankrollers by bashing Boeing publicly, that’s a big part of it.
Even so, it’s sweet to have administration officials on record as thinking the NLRB’s overreached. Especially since they’re … still overreaching.
In a move that will undoubtedly please labor unions, the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday morning proposed new rules to speed up unionization elections, largely by streamlining various procedures…
Unions have long complained that it takes too many weeks from when they petition for an election to when a secret-ballot election is held. They say the process gives management too much time to mount an aggressive antiunion campaign with videos and one-and-one sessions with workers.
According to the N.L.R.B., the average amount of time it took from petition to election in 2008 was 57 days.
American companies have repeatedly opposed any effort to shorten the period from petition to vote, saying that would make it harder for managers to tell workers about the disadvantages of unionizing and to ensure that workers gets both sides of the story.
An easy three-step process to unionization. First, make sure workers are ill-informed about their choices. If that doesn’t work, intimidate them into voting for the union by eliminating their right to a secret ballot. And if that doesn’t work and the company tries to move operations to another state, have the NLRB step in and tell them that they’re trapped and can’t leave. No wonder people laugh out loud now when O talks about his economic management.
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