Support builds for proposed NLRB rule

kristySRI/ESG News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 22, 2011

CONTACT:
Zoe Bridges-Curry
(202) 822-2127
zbridges@americanrightsatwork.org

HOW IT’S PLAYING: CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS, FORMER NLRB MEMBERS, ADVOCATES, AND FAITH GROUPS APPLAUD PROPOSED NLRB RULE CHANGES

Washington, DC — Congressional leaders, advocacy organizations, faith groups, and former National Labor Relations Board members joined labor unions and workers’ rights advocates in voicing their support for Tuesday’s proposed election rule changes from the NLRB.

By eliminating voting delays and modernizing an outdated system, the rule removes unfair obstacles so that workers can vote on whether to form a union if they want to.

Here are just a few of the people and organizations who’ve weighed in so far in support of the rule change:

Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid: “Today’s proposed rule change is about fairness. It would help give workers the same ability to bargain for wages and benefits now enjoyed by CEOs – whose pay has skyrocketed while their employees continue to struggle.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “Around the world, the United States advocates to help ensure that working people have a voice in determining their future; this will help guarantee the same opportunities for workers here at home.”

Sen. Tom Harkin: “Right now, CEOs can bargain to secure extremely generous salaries and golden-parachute retirements, but millions of hardworking Americans don’t have a way to guarantee from week to week that they’ll be able to work enough hours to feed their family, or that their health benefits won’t be cut without notice… I applaud the NLRB for taking a significant step forward in restoring the middle class by proposing rules to fix the broken union election process.”

Sen. John Kerry: “This rule is fundamentally American because it protects workers’ rights to choose to have a union or to choose not to – and that’s a choice we believe in as a matter of principle.”

Former NLRB member Sarah Fox: “For decades, analysts and commentators have discussed the pervasive problem of delays in the NLRB election process, both between the filing of a petition and the actual election, and between the holding of the election and the certification of results… These are modest and common sense reforms that seek to address a serious and long-recognized problem.”

Center for American Progress President John Podesta: “The same crowd that is trying to take away collective bargaining rights in the states is opposing a modest improvement to give workers a fairer, more standardized process for voting to join a union.”

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous: “In a time where the rights of working families and union members are under assault, and corporations are using extreme tactics to discourage the formation of unions, the NLRB stood up for the hard working American men and women today.”

Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice: “Without this step forward, anti-union employers have too much power to intimidate workers and stop them from expressing their voice on the job.”

Others speaking out in support of the changes include Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work, SEIU, CWA, UFCW, and IBT.

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