*UPDATED: November 15, 2012–Now that the re-election of Barack Obama has taken place, this is back on the table.
President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is considering a rule that would force private businesses to turn over their workers’ personal information — such as phone numbers, email addresses, and work schedules — to union organizers.
While this rule would be intended to make it easier for union bosses to organize workers at businesses that do not have a union presence, it would also have the unintended effect of making workers vulnerable to harassment.
Unfortunately, this is not a new idea…
*This post was originally published on January 26th, 2012:
Undaunted by the constitutionally-questionable appointment of three members to Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board, union attorney and current NLRB chairman Mark Pearce declared in an Associated Press interview that he and his union comrades are continuing their assault on the 93% of private-sector employees who are union-free.
In fact, if Obama’s union appointees have their way, all employees who are targeted for unionization will have their employers forced to turn over their home telephone number and e-mail addresses to unions.
Ever since the 1960s, when unions have targeted companies for unionization through a NLRB-supervised election, employers have been required to turn over the list of employee names and their home addresses. The NLRB, in turn, promptly gives the list of employee names and home addresses to the involved union(s).
This list, called an Excelsior List, gives union organizers the ability to conduct intrusive home visits prior to the NLRB election. As is often said, just as when any other salesperson doing door-to-door sales knocks at the door, targeted employees can invite the union organizers into their homes, or they can sic the chihuahua on them.
The requirement to furnish the employees’ names and addresses list is mandatory. In fact, the refusal by an employer to furnish the list (or providing a list with too many errors) would typically result in the NLRB’s automatic overturning of an election if a union were to lose. Again, this requirement has been the standard since the 1960s.
Now, however, the union appointees within the Obama NLRB want to expand the current Excelsior List requirement from the mere furnishing of names and addresses to also include furnishing employees’ home telephone numbers and their e-mail addresses to enable unions to perpetually propagandize employees.
According to the AP report:
“We keep our eye on the prize,” Pearce said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Our goal is to create a set of rules that eliminate a lot of waste of time, energy and money for the taxpayers.”
One change Pearce wants is to require businesses to hand over lists of employee phone numbers and emails to union leaders before an election.
He also wants the board to consider other rule changes it didn’t have time to approve before it was on the verge of losing a quorum last year. That includes the use of electronic filings and quicker timetables for certain procedures.
“My personal hope is that we take on all of these things and consider each one of these rules,” Pearce said. “We presume the constitutionality of the president’s appointments, and we go forward based on that understanding.”
With ambush elections looming on the horizon, as long as Obama’s NLRB continues its assault on union-free employers and their employees (and as long as Republicans remain unwilling to, or incapable of truly reining in the rogue NLRB), as opposed to creating jobs Barack Obama’s alleged goal of creating jobs will remain elusive. Still, the union bureaucrats within the federal apparatchik don’t seem to understand this simple fact.
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“Socialism has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy.” Samuel Gompers, American Federation of Labor, 1918
Cross-posted at LaborUnionReport.com
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