The House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently continued its partisan attack on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by approving a bill to prohibit the NLRB from doing its job of protecting workers and their right to bargain collectively.
The so-called “Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act” (HR 2587) prohibits the NLRB from stopping an employer from retaliating against its workforce’s right to strike or join a union by relocating, shutting down or transferring its business.
GOP leaders are rushing the bill through the House in hopes of making it law before the end of the current Boeing vs. NLRB trial. The NLRB charged Boeing with retaliating against its unionized workforce in Washington State by transferring the company’s 787 Dreamliner assembly to the right-to-work (for less) state of South Carolina.
“Here we go again,” said TCU President Scardelletti. “Your vote counts…these lawmakers are trying again to take away our rights and change the laws to fatten their pockets not to protect the hard working American middle class worker.”
“This bill is bad news for America, bad news for workers, and it is bad news for the middle class,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA) in his opening remarks before the committee. “It has been rushed to assist a Fortune 500 company in a case that hasn’t even been decided yet.”
“To be clear, any company is free to locate work at any plant in any state,” said Miller. “But the law is crystal clear that it is illegal to do so for discriminatory reasons. It’s illegal to take away work from some workers, union or non-union, because they have exercised their rights. That’s exactly what Boeing is alleged to have done and why the NLRB has acted.”
