Unions Rally Against Bush ‘Anti-Labor’ Policies
From The City Paper: Local and national labor union leaders gathered at Legislative Plaza on Wednesday to engage in some “Bush bashing” and to show outrage toward the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The rally was one of 18 throughout the country this week, coordinated with a study released by the liberal research group American Rights at Work. At issue, the NLRB has not heard oral arguments regarding the possible reclassifying of 8 million union members as “supervisors,” a move that would preclude them from union membership.
Stewart Acuff, national organizing director of the AFL-CIO, told a crowd of more than 100 union members that the decision could have the most negative impact of any labor policy in 60 years. He added that during the Bush administration, the NLRB has not heard a single oral argument.
“The right to collective bargaining is an internationally recognized, fundamental human right which George Bush and this labor board have systematically been trying to destroy,” Acuff said.
Nurses seem to be most in danger of losing union rights, union leaders say. Nearly 850,000 of the 2.5 million nurses in the United States could be denied collective bargaining rights if the definition of “supervisor” is based on independent judgment and workplace autonomy. The revised policy could also affect mineworkers, computers systems analysts and cooks, union officials say.
Linda Jernigan, a registered nurse at Nashville’s VA Medical Center, said she could lose her bargaining power for wages and benefits. Jernigan is also concerned about having no say regarding adequate working conditions and reasonable shift lengths.
“Without the collective voice, we have no power to stop [administrators],” she said. “They could do pretty much what they want to do.”
Eric Schechter, professor of math at Vanderbilt University and a social activist, attended Wednesday’s rally and said he feels the labor/management balance is out of whack.
“I believe that this is another move among many to decrease the power among unions and increase the power of big amoral corporations who’ve been destroying the country and the world for quite a while now.”
The rally ended in a chanting session outside the local office of the NLRB where union leaders dropped off petitions asking for the five-member NLRB in Washington to hear oral arguments in the “Kentucky River case,” a group of three pending cases expected to be decided sometime this summer.
Joe Antiles, local NLRB officer, said the board is a neutral party and will consider the request.
Jerry Lee, president of the state’s AFL-CIO chapter, said labor groups will continue the grassroots push to be heard, but no threats of striking have been made.
“We’ve learned a long time ago that withholding our labor is not the best route to take, especially in the climate that prevails today politically,” Lee said. “[A company] could hire striker replacements and fire the striking worker. There’s really no recourse.”
By Blake Farmer
July 13, 2006
