A GOP Effect on the NLRB?

Steve Bernstein was quoted in HR Executive Magazine on January 7, 2015. The article “A GOP Effect on the NLRB?” discussed whether or not the Republican-controlled Congress will be able to provide any relief for employers looking to blunt union-organizing efforts this year, due to three recent National Labor Relations Board decisions.

Steve was quoted on his take of the NLRB’s recent decisions.

He labeled the NLRB as expectedly “very busy.”

“It’s not unprecedented to see a rush of substantive NLRB decisions at the end of the year, especially with a board member leaving,” Steve said, referring to outgoing member Nancy Schiffer, whose term ended Dec. 31. “They had a full quorum [five voting members] and an upcoming changeover in Congress, so given the Board’s makeup [three Democrats, two Republicans] and based on earlier actions no one is surprised with the flurry of decisions favoring employees.”

Steve, in fact, characterized the email decision as “seven years in the making,” with labor unions working to get a Bush Administration NLRB rule overturned since the day President Barack Obama took office.

“This decision is the culmination of those efforts,” Steve noted, adding that what’s most important is where the email decision fits into the context of other NLRB decisions, and to what extent it’s part of the broader trend of eroding employer property rights. “There has always been tension between employer-property rights and union-access rights, and this is more of the same.”

To read the full article, please visit HR Executive Online.