Far Right Renews Attack on NLRB
January 22, 2013
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It is tempting to think that the first days of a new administration might be an opportunity for old adversaries to rise above the partisanship that marked the last four years, but the conservative blogosphere wasted little time renewing its attack on one of the far right’s favorite targets; the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In a pair of opinion pieces, Fred Wszolek of the anti-union Workforce Fairness Institute and Trey Kovaks of the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, both attacked the board, with Kovaks going so far as to propose the agency charged with protecting the federal right to organize be abolished altogether.
Responding to the attacks, John Logan, professor and director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University, explained why the right’s fight with the labor board is not likely to go away soon: “Ultimately, the right does not hate the NLRB because of any particular actions of the current board or previous boards. The reason that conservatives hate the NLRB is that they no longer believe in the rights protected by the board,” said Logan. “The GOP and its anti-union allies are content for workers to have the right to organize and bargaining collectively on paper so long it is virtually impossible for them to exercise those rights in practice.”
Logan concludes his article with a defense of labor rights by arguing that the only solution that will rebuild our economy is to strengthen labor rights and restore Americans’ voice at work.
