Senate Republicans say they have a plan to save U.S. labor law from partisanship and dysfunction. But their prescription for reform could make for even more gridlock — and critics say that’s the whole idea.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) unveiled a bill that would make sweeping changes at the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law on unions and employers. The proposal would permanently change the board’s makeup from five members — three of whom, per modern tradition, hail from the sitting president’s party — to a more equitable six members, divided evenly at three Democrats and three Republicans.
Sounds great, right? Everybody hates partisan bickering. As Alexander claimed on the floor, the change would “require both sides to find a middle ground.”
There’s just one hitch: A permanent, even split along partisan lines could ensure that the most contentious labor cases go unresolved for years, with conservative and liberal board members at loggerheads. The reform would be akin to establishing a 10-member Supreme Court, permanently comprised of five liberals and five conservatives.
“This is the destruction of the NLRB, and they know it,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, which represents 700,000 workers. “It is a disgrace. Lamar Alexander is a disgrace.”
“That’s exactly what we’d expect a union leader to say about a bill that threatens to make a partisan board that, under Obama, has been favorable to unions into a board that’s fairer and more responsive to businesses and employees across the country,” countered Jim Jeffries, a spokesman for Alexander.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Alexander said the proposal would encourage the fair resolution of cases by making the board into an “umpire” rather than an “advocate.”
But Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate committee that handles labor issues, told HuffPost in a statement that he believed the bill was “intended to undermine and debilitate the agency, rather than improve its functioning.”
“I would welcome the opportunity to work with any of my colleagues on legislation that would actually improve the Board’s ability to serve its important mission,” Harkin said, “but I fear that this legislation is a step in the wrong direction.”
Wilma Liebman, a past chair of the board under President Barack Obama, agreed that the Alexander proposal could paralyze the board when it comes to the thorniest of cases.
“I guess the idea is that neither side can sway things and that in theory at least the members would have to find a way to achieve consensus,” Liebman said in an email. “In the atmosphere we now live in, however, I think… that the difficult legal issues would be gridlocked.
“It is possible that on some issues, the six members might find a common ground, in the interest of deciding cases,” Liebman added. “But for anything novel, controversial or difficult, it is hard to see how they would find a way forward. They would spend a lot of time negotiating, I guess. Or at war.”
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Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/labor-law-reform_n_5838922.html?utm_hp_ref=politics