NLRB Rule Requiring Posters In Workplace Infuriates Business Groups

WASHINGTON -- The federal labor board announced Thursday that it has finalized a rule requiring employers to post notices in the workplace informing workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. The poster will be a modest 11 by 17 inches, similar to the Department of Labor notices already posted in workplaces across the country, and it will be provided free by the federal government.

Business groups and their allies are furious. They say that the rule is too onerous, and that it benefits labor unions.

The National Federation of Independent Business, a powerful small-business trade group known to support Republicans, quickly pounced on the "punitive new rule" as another assault by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on independent employers.

"Just when we thought we had seen it all from the NLRB, it has reached a new low in its zeal to punish small-business owners," Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center, said in a statement.

The National Labor Relations Act is a 76-year-old law that outlines workers' rights to unionize and bargain collectively in most private-sector workplaces. The fact that the board would want Americans aware of these rights is apparently seen by some as catering to labor unions.

Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for labor policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told The New York Times that he questioned whether the NLRB even had the authority to mandate the postings.

"This is one more initiative among those we expect to be coming out over the next month that are essentially gifts to organized labor," he said.

The conservative-leaning Boston Herald penned an editorial Friday decrying the labor board as "out of control."

"House Republicans seem intent on trying to rein in the NLRB. This just gives them more ammunition," the editorial board wrote.

Peter Schaumber, a former NLRB chairman appointed by George W. Bush, told Bloomberg that the new rule is "arbitrary" and "capricious."

"It shows just how activist they’re prepared to be," he said.

The poster hubbub may be just another sign that the NLRB can't do much of anything these days without infuriating the business community. A high-profile complaint filed by its general counsel against the Boeing Company earlier this year has rallied Republicans and business trade groups against the NLRB as well as the White House. New rules proposed by the board that would streamline the union election process have also angered the right. Some Republican leaders have gone so far as to threaten defunding the labor board.

As for the new posters, NLRB officials don't see the requirement as all that burdensome -- and in fact, they believe the posters are long overdue.

"We've been one of the few agencies that enforce workplace laws that haven’t had some kind of posting up," agency spokeswoman Nancy Cleeland notes.

The new poster requirements will go into effect Nov. 14.

Companies will be able to download the poster off the web or stop into any NLRB regional office to pick up free copies. Cleeland said the board tried to be as accommodating as possible, tweaking the rules after a public-comment period so that employers could use black-and-white posters if they don't have color printers. And if the companies don't carry 11 by 17 inch paper, the board carved out a solution.

"They can take two different 8-by-11 pieces of paper and tape them together," Cleeland said.

Comments

[Sean Fardy]

05:03 PM on 10/01/2011

I've read the wording of the proposed poster... anyone who reads the poster and says that it isn't HEAVILY slanted toward the pro-union side is lying or stupid.
The only section that is fairly balanced is where it outlines what would constitute illegal activity by either employer OR union

I am not anti-union, I feel that unions are good for employees in some situations, and not good for employees in others.
Generally speaking I lean democrat
I voted for Obama

This poster is designed to communicate to most workers that they're stupid if they don't have a union, which I think is unfair.

[N369RM]

12:03 PM on 09/10/2011

For a review of NLRB abuse and changes needed read:

http://theohiolaborlawyers.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/nlrb-changes-needed/

[aldo717]

04:11 PM on 09/01/2011

Yet another "job killer" law approved by Omaba to benefits his beloved labor unions, it is no wonder that unemployment keeps going up and more companies are moving abroad, this is a real job creator for China, India, Korea, Mexico, etc. but not good for hard working Americans! Work Union, Live Better - until you get laid off becasue someone oversees will do the same exact job for 1/3 of the wages and no benefits... it is no wonder America is becoming a thrid "socialist" world nation, need I say more?

[92102]

04:55 PM on 08/29/2011

The same businesses that are whining about a poster informing employees of their rights also spend thousands if not more on 'union aviodance' consultants that teach line supervisors how to look for signs that employees might be thinking about organizing. Also new hire orientations sometimes use anti-union propoganda as part of their welcome to the company process.

[blacksmithn]

10:06 AM on 08/29/2011

All this hysteria over a small poster they can print off a website or pick up for free. Oh, how onerous! How I weep for their poor, delicate sensibilities. How my heart bleeds for their neverending torment!

Okay, not so much.

[jaguarpete]

08:37 AM on 08/29/2011

Maryland has had that rule for years. There has been a poster everywhere I've worked. Pretty innocent. But employers don't want employees to know their rights. They want them to stay ignorant and behave like sheep. Do what you're told. Be happy you have a job. Obey me.

[Rooster54]

02:51 PM on 08/28/2011

Only a person who wants to take advantage of working people would make such a fuss about their rights being made known to them.

[Sean Fardy]

05:13 PM on 10/01/2011

Or somebody who doesn't want a union to interfere with a business?
Whether a union is need or not doesn't mean they won't try and insert themselves. And if they become involved, the business, in most cases changes dramatically, and not necessarily to the benefit of the employee.

Say for instance, the business has a model where employees often "wear many hats", picking up shifts in varied capacities...... and then a union comes in, and wants to institute "specialization"; meaning that each employee can only perform certain duties. This would have several impacts on the business: more employees would have to be hired for the now more specific roles in order to satisfy the needs of the business, thus benefiting the union, as they now have more union members, which pay a flat dues amoutn regardless of hours/income. The employee on the other hand, who could previously work multiple shifts in multiple capacities, may now be able to only work one or two shifts in their "specialized" capacity, thereby effectively cutting their pay....... how does that help the employee?

[RONALD MCKENZIE]

02:13 PM on 08/28/2011

Don't tell me, yet an other reason to end corporate personhood.

[jaye27]

10:59 AM on 08/28/2011

I'm interested to hear the Republican candidates remarks on this, that is if anyone can get close enough to ask.

[JPETERB]

01:43 PM on 08/28/2011

No one will dare ask. The media controls the candidates that way, or the other way around. We get the message the media allows the public to hear, not answers to the questions we want to ask.

[sueinmn]

09:20 AM on 08/28/2011

Repubs/corps do not want people to have rights much less know those rights.
Repubs/corps only want dumbed down easily intimidated employees willing to work for peanuts and terrible conditions.
Repubs/corps, if they could have their way_ you would see much more of the same as was recently exposed at the Hershey Company.

Know your rights or succumb to their intimidation and the ever decreasing workplace safety and decreasing living standards. Good jobs that use to pay $20-30 now pay $12-18. Can your family and communities maintain quality living standards on less with more spiraling downwards as corps pursue their continued greed for their personal profits? The business model of today is broken.

[WalterJesseSmith]

01:12 AM on 08/28/2011

Isn't it encouraging to see Obama once again joining Clinton and the Republicans in dismantling our entire New Deal's birthright?

Of course he loves the ways the right wing is preparing to help him cut social security.

What next? Will he actually take a position on the reactionary refusal to authorize emergency funding relief for Hurricane Irene without other cuts from welfare for the poor, disabled, and otherwise dispossessed?

Of course he will! Unless he is convinced he can oppose it and still sign it into law.

Will he continue mouthing about making the wealthy pay taxes without actually doing anything specific to make that a reality?

What else might he do?

[NevaforLeadership]

12:42 PM on 08/28/2011

What will you do to improve your life?

In the meantime, are you intent on the U.S. having a republican president (most likely a creationist from Texas), who will be anathema to your beliefs, because in bashing Obama who is the closest of the presidential contenders to those beliefs, that is what you are doing?

[jaguarpete]

08:46 AM on 08/29/2011

Are you actually that ignorant as to how Government works? Obama is working with a Republican-led House, where bills are introduced. If the bill passes the House, it goes to the Senate, where Republicans control the agenda via the threat of a 'gentlemen's filibuster' and the need of a 'super majority' -- 60 votes -- to move to cloture so a vote can be taken. Senator McConnell has vowed that nothing Obama wants (or needs) will move through the Senate.
Other countries with reprentative government have provisions where the President can dissolve Parliament and call for special elections. We don't have that privelege. We have to wait until Election Day (next November) in order to change the compsition of the House and Senate. I hope the Republicans continue to read the Nation wrong and get themselves voted out of office. I'm sorry that we have to go through sush Nationa pain while we wait. But the Republicans aren't looking like they will come to their senses anytime soon.

[nopilikia]

01:08 AM on 08/28/2011

Send a bunch to China and North Korea.

[Cheri Quinn]

10:36 PM on 08/27/2011

The dust up over this issue points out that no matter how small the effort to keep workers informed of their rights the Republicans and business people see it as a frontal assault. The laws are already on the books. What is the advantage of keeping people in the dark? That is really a rhetorical question. The advantage is that the less power, education, and money that workers have, then the easier it is to intimidate them into thinking that those laws don't apply to them.

[Chaton de Malheur]

10:16 PM on 08/27/2011

Employee's rights have to be posted anyway, so what's another small sign. They usually put the posters up in the lunchroom or bathrooms. It does help keep employers honest, and we need all the help we can get.

[litlbznsmn]

09:03 PM on 08/27/2011

What a bunch of whiners - how horrible and onerous can it be to have to tack up a poster for your emplyeees to see??