Trump Re-Appoints Radical Obama NLRB Member

Reward Radical Obama Appointee With Another Term?

Senate Leader Can Still End Mark Pearce’s Abusive NLRB Tenure

In 2013, four independent-minded employees of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort and Spa in Honolulu received menacing letters from the hierarchy of the UNITE HERE (AFL-CIO) Local 5 union.

The letters to employees Mark Tamosiunas, Steven Taono, Agnes Demarke, and Wayne Young included threats flagrantly violating their right, under federal labor law, not to bankroll union-boss politics and lobbying with their forced union fees.

At the time they received the UNITE HERE letters, which threatened to have their wages garnished if they refused to pay forced fees for Local 5’s bargaining and political schemes, equal in amount to the dues forked over by members, none of these employees belonged to the union.

Moreover, they had all expressly told Local 5 bosses that they wanted to exercise their right under National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation-won precedents, such as CWA v. Beck, not to bankroll Big Labor politics and other non-bargaining activities.

In forced-unionism states like Hawaii, private-sector workers can unfortunately be forced to pay fees to a union they would never voluntarily join, or be fired, but the law does not permit Organized Labor chiefs to force workers to pay for union advocacy about non-workplace matters.

With the help of Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, in early 2014 the four Hyatt Regency employees filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the Local 5 brass with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The response the union boss-abused employees got was all too typical of the NLRB during the years it was controlled by appointees of Big Labor President Barack Obama.

Federal Court Panel: Pearce-Coauthored 2016 Ruling Is ‘Legally Unsupportable’

Two years ago, a board majority, including Obama-selected Chairman Mark Pearce, found that Local 5 bigwigs’ political forced-fee demand and their threat to have workers’ wages garnished if they didn’t obey were lawful!

Fortunately, thanks to Right to Work attorneys’ free legal assistance, that was not the end of the story. The Hawaii hotel workers were able to file an appeal in federal court to get the Obama NLRB’s lawless decision overturned.

And this June, a unanimous D.C. Circuit panel of judges agreed that the board bureaucrats had egregiously erred.

The panel, consisting of two Obama-appointed judges and a Jimmy Carter appointee, denounced the Pearce-coauthored ruling as “legally unsupportable,” “contorted,” “provid[ing] no rational basis,” and “mak[ing] no sense” when they remanded the case for entry of a remedial order in favor of the injured employees.

Ask Mitch McConnell to Stop Mark Pearce From Inflicting Even More Harm

“The recent D.C. Circuit ruling in UNITE HERE Local 5 is not the only time federal judges have expressed astonishment at Mark Pearce’s willingness to disregard the law to get the result preferred by Big Labor,” noted National Right to Work Committee Vice President Mary King,

“In March 2017, for example, a unanimous panel of judges blasted him for failing to explain how a decision impairing the ability of employees in Right to Work Arizona to cut off financial support for a union by resigning their membership ‘can be squared with [board] precedent and existing law.’

“Again and again, as a consequence of the actions of Mr. Pearce and other Obama NLRB appointees, union bosses have been able to get away for years with illegally extracting forced dues and fees from dissenting workers until the federal judiciary finally put a stop to it.

“And it will take additional years of legal action by tenacious employees and Right to Work attorneys before the damage wrought by the Obama NLRB is undone, to the extent it can be.”

Just before this Newsletter went to press in early September, Big Labor Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) smooth-talked the White House into nominating Mr. Pearce for another five-year term on the NLRB.

But the nomination could still be stopped by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

He can simply refuse to bring it to the floor, noted Ms. King. She urged Committee members to call Mr. McConnell’s D.C. office at 202-224-2541, and ask him to stop Mr. Pearce from inflicting any more damage.

(source: October 2018 National Right to Work Newsletter)