Message to NLRB: Stop ‘Infantilizing’ Workers 

Right to Work Attorney’s Testimony Blasts Biden Board’s Abuses

Four years ago this summer, every Democrat U.S. senator, plus a handful of Big Labor-intimidated Republicans, bowed to the demands of top union bosses and President Joe Biden by rubber-stamping Mr. Biden’s two pending nominees for the five-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

One of the Biden nominees getting the Senate nod was David Prouty. Until his confirmation, he had been the top lawyer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ, which has a long history of corruption and political activism in the Big Apple. 

The other was Gwynne Wilcox, a radical union lawyer who had, until then, been associate general counsel for another large, New York City-based SEIU subsidiary, Local 1199. Local 1199 officers and militants have long been implicated in alleged acts of sabotage in nursing home facilities, and former Local 1199 President George Gresham was recently ousted from office after being publicly accused of systematic financial improprieties.

Biden Policies Inhibited, At Times Effectively Quashed, Workers’ Statutory Rights

Together with the Senate greenlighting on July 22, 2021 of veteran Communications Workers of America (CWA) union lawyer Jennifer Abruzzo as NLRB general counsel, the confirmations of Mr. Prouty and Ms. Wilcox handed Big Labor bosses solid control over this powerful federal agency. 

The consequences of the complete NLRB takeover by rabidly anti-Right to Work Big Labor lawyers, effectuated by Mr. Biden barely more than six months after his presidential inauguration, have been dire for independent-minded workers and union-free businesses across the country.

This June 11, the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee held a public hearing to discuss how the Biden NLRB rigged federal regulations to enhance union bosses’ power at ordinary workers’ expense, as well as what to do about it. 

Pro-Right to Work HELP Chairman Rick Allen (R-Ga.) invited Aaron Solem, a staff attorney for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (the National Right to Work Committee’s sister organization), to appear as one of four expert witnesses.

In a 17-page, footnoted written statement submitted to the HELP panel as well as in his oral testimony, Mr. Solem decried Biden NLRB policies that severely inhibit, and sometimes effectively destroy, workers’ statutory collective right under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to reject unionization.

‘Any Unfair Labor Practice’ Charge That’s Filed ‘Will Stop an Election’

“These are anti-employee policies because they cancel worker choices and replace them with decisions made by unions and the government,” wrote Mr. Solem.

A case in point is the unconscionable “blocking charge” policy that was deservedly terminated by the Trump NLRB in 2020, only to be revived by the Biden NLRB in 2024. 

Under the NLRA, if a union wields monopoly-bargaining power over a workplace, but a group of employees file a petition to remove it, and the board has evidence that raises legitimate questions about whether a majority of employees want to be unionized, the board is obliged to order a secret-ballot vote. 

The “Election Protection Rule” adopted during the last year of the first Trump Administration went a long way toward bringing NLRB procedures for removing (or “decertifying”) an unwanted union into accord with what the NLRA actually requires. 

Unfortunately, since the Election Protection Rule was scrapped by the Biden NLRB, even unproven or demonstrably false union-boss allegations against an employer suffice to delay a decertification election while the NLRB investigates the charges. 

As Mr. Solem explained to the HELP panelists in response to a question from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.): “Under the Biden rule, any unfair labor practice [charge] that’s filed — regardless of if it’s meritorious or not — will stop an election. So it incentivizes filing charges just to increase delay.”

‘Reality’ That ‘Many Workers Don’t Want Union Representation’ Was Ignored

Another key way in which the Biden NLRB chose to “ignore the reality” that “many employees don’t want union representation,” said Mr. Solem, was in its relentless application of the so-called “recognition bar.” 

The recognition bar, which is not mentioned even obliquely anywhere in the text of the NLRA, prevents employees who have been subjected to a successful Big Labor “card check” unionization drive from attempting to decertify a union in a secret-ballot vote for the next 6-12 months. 

Allowing Big Labor-“friendly” card checks that are widely recognized by courts to be inferior as a means of ascertaining workers’ true wishes to be used as an excuse to block workers from exercising their statutory right to request a secret-ballot decertification election is perverse, indicated Mr. Solem.

In general, he concluded, the Biden NLRB followed an unfortunate pattern of “infantiliz[ing]” employees by “treat[ing] them like sheep who are too ignorant to decide for themselves.” 

Mr. Solem expressed his hope that, under the second Trump Administration, the NLRB would “restore balance and fairness” by advancing a “truly proemployee agenda.”

Without Congressional Action, Workers’ Rights Won’t Be Truly Protected

In his written testimony, Mr. Solem emphasized that, as valuable as new NLRB rules that equally protect workers’ freedom to vote in and vote out a union would be, workers’ rights won’t be truly protected without congressional action. 

First and foremost, he called for passage of the National Right to Work Act (H.R.1232 in the House), which would expand Right to Work protections to all 50 states by repealing all the current provisions in federal labor law that authorize forced union dues and fees as a job condition. 

One of the HELP panel members present at the June 11 hearing was South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, who is H.R.1232’s lead sponsor. 

During his allotted time to speak, Mr. Wilson commended the National Right to Work Committee for its persistent efforts to increase the number of state Right to Work laws on the books, which has grown from 17 at the time of the Committee’s founding in early 1955 to 26 today. 

Mr. Wilson called South Carolina a “prime example” of Right to Work laws’ positive economic impact, specifically noting, among other things, that the Palmetto State now ranks first among the 50 states for car and tire exports.

Right to Work Leader Presses For Roll-Call Floor Vote on H.R.1232

Mr. Solem agreed that Right to Work laws promote the creation of good jobs, but emphasized that their primary benefit is that they protect “employee free choice.” 

Besides Mr. Solem, former NLRB Chairman Abruzzo, Institute for the American Worker President Vinnie Vernuccio, and Roger King, senior labor and employment counsel at the HR Policy Association, testified at the June 11 hearing, titled, “Restoring Balance: Ensuring Fairness and Transparency at the NLRB.” 

National Right to Work Committee Vice President Greg Mourad commended Chairman Allen for the “eye-opening” discussion. 

“More than anything else,” he added, “the House HELP panel has underscored the need for chamber leaders to bring H.R.1232, the National Right to Work Act, to the floor for a recorded vote during the current Congress.”

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