Over the last year, the Obama Administration, through its regulatory agencies, has been conducting a quiet war on American business—those enterprises that are the nation’s job creators. Earlier this week, the union extremists in Obama’s Department of Labor and the “independent” National Labor Relations Board (the same agency that may cause 1,000 Boeing employees in South Carolina to lose their jobs) launched an all-out offensive designed to maximize unions’ ability to unionize the 93.1% of America’s private-sector employees who are union free.

The Department of Labor writes its own DISCLOSE Act.

On Monday, using retread and biased psuedo-studies, the Department of Labor issued an expansive 160-page notice for proposed rule-making; request for comments. It is, in sum, a radical overhaul of the reporting requirements for employers who wish to remain union free and the consultants, lawyers, and firms that provide human resources, employee and labor relations services.

Since 1959, under a little known law called the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, labor relations consultants who ‘persuade’ employees in the exercise of their Section Seven Rights (the right to unionize or not) have been required to file financial disclosure statements, as do the employers who hire labor relations consultants.

Now, the Department of Labor wants any person who is contracted to directly or indirectly persuades employees to file be required to file reports. To the union zealots at the Department of Labor, any person, lawyer or firm who trains supervisors on how to lawfully communicate with employees about unions, any company that produces videos, conducts seminars, or vulnerability audits (like employee opinion surveys) would be required to file and disclose their earnings which then become made public.

Among those that would be caught up in this bureaucratic quagmire could be PR firms who provide PR services, websites, or videos to counter union corporate campaigns, video production companies, firms that produce websites, or other multi-media presentations, human resource firms that institute or facilitate round table meetings or design personnel policies or practices for positive employee relations, law firms or associations who offer seminars on remaining union free, as well as polling firms that conduct employee satisfaction surveys [see page 147].

As strange as it may seem for President Obama’s Department of Labor to classify and require individuals and companies who measure or recommend help make improvements in the workplace to file as and disclose their fees, it is nothing more than an effort to enable unions access to company expenditures while making it more difficult to obtain labor and employee relations services.

Like the intent behind the proposed DISCLOSE Act, unions want to be able to shut down free speech for employers to make it easier to target them.

Before the Department of Labor’s rule-making proposal is goes into effect, the public can submit comments online at http://www.regulations.gov. The deadline for comments is Aug. 22. If you are opposed to this union assault on America’s job creators, you can not only make your comments known with the Department of Labor, you can also contact your representatives in Congress.

National Labor Relations Board Continues Terrorizing Business

More than a year since the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) dies an ignominious and deserved death, the union-controlled National Labor Relations Board announced on Tuesday that it is seeking comments on its proposed rule making to make it easier to unionize companies.

The rule change the NLRB is proposing to change is to turn union representation elections into “quickie elections”—from the current 38 to42-day elections that occur now to elections that take place in as little as 10 to 21 days. In his dissent, lone Republican NLRB member Brian Hayes noted:

…[B]y administrative fiat in lieu of Congressional action, the Board will impose organized labor’s much sought-after “quickie election” option, a procedure under which elections will be held in 10 to 21 days from the filing of the petition.  Make no mistake, the principal purpose for this radical manipulation of our election process is to minimize, or rather, to effectively eviscerate an employer’s legitimate opportunity to express its views about collective bargaining.

As unions currently win nearly 70% of NLRB elections, an expedited (or “quickie”) election process is expected to increase the union win rate substantially. Former NLRB member Peter Kirsanow explains:

Make absolutely no mistake: That’s not enough time for even the largest and most sophisticated employers to counter what the union has been telling employees while organizing them for the last 6–8 months.

In addition to “quickie elections,” the union extremists controlling the National Labor Relations Board are also proposing that unions be given names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of eligible voters within two days once an election has been set up. [Currently, unions are only given eligible voters’ names and addresses seven days after an election is set up.]

Moreover, the employer would be forced to provide to produce a preliminary voter list, including names, work location, shift, and classification, by the opening of the pre-election hearing.  The NLRB also proposes limiting parties’ (read: employers’) right to appeal cases.

Like the Department of Labor’s announced assault, the NLRB is also seeking public comment on its rules.

According to Labor Relations Today:

The Board invites comments on its proposed rulemaking in two ways. First, the Board is holding a public hearing scheduled for July 18 and possibly July 19. Second, it is providing a 60-day period for written comments, with 14 days for replies, that may be submitted electronically though Regulations.gov or by mail to the Board’s Washington D.C. headquarters.

Regardless whether you’re an employer or an employee, you have a stake in this.

As we’ve witnessed in Wisconsin and elsewhere, unions are desperately trying to cling to their power and using the government to do so.  Take the time to contact your representative in Congress.

You can also contact the House Education & Workforce Committee here.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted.