Organized labor and some religious groups are fed up with President Bush and the
National Labor Relations Board. They recently shut down the Board for two hours
as more than 1,500 union members and their supporters blocked traffic and chanted
their derision and disapproval on the street in front of the Board’s DC headquarters.
They were protesting the anticipated decision by the Board of classifying some nurses
as supervisors, which means they cannot join unions.
The decision would not only affect nurses, but also supervisory personnel in a
variety of fields such as construction, warehousing and distribution, lodging,
groceries, etc.
Labor will fight hard on this issue because, if passed, it would mean that organized
labor could lose 8-million dues-paying members. That’s a lot of money for union coffers.
Ever since the rupture in the AFL-CIO, unions have grown more militant, and the
supervisory issue is just one subject about which they are up in arms. Another is
the pending Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers a direct path to
joining a union by bypassing NLRB supervised elections.
If Corporate America does not install appropriate pro-management programs,
the new union militants will gain the upper hand, and their effect on productivity
and profitability will be negative.
