Union Poster Rule: Video Mocks GOP, Business Groups For 'Hysteria'

WASHINGTON -- Back in August, federal regulators issued a rule requiring businesses to hang posters informing employees of their rights to collective bargaining. Deeming the move by the National Labor Relations Board an attack on job creators, business groups promptly went bananas, claiming that such a gift to Big Labor would create unnecessary red tape and stifle job growth.

"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 the National Federation of Independent Business' legal center, said at the time.

But American Rights at Work, a pro-union group advocating for "free choice" in the workplace, has now released a video (above) highlighting what they describe as right-wing "hysteria" over the rule issued by the board. The rule requires that employers hang an 11-by-17-inch notice explaining the National Labor Relations Act, the 76-year-old law that governs unions and collective bargaining. The placards look a lot like the Department of Labor postings that Americans are used to seeing in the workplace.

The video suggests that the new "poster rule" may be less cumbersome and costly than some business groups have claimed.

Nancy Cleeland, an NLRB spokeswoman, told HuffPost that the agency tried to be as accommodating of businesses as possible. In addition to offering free posters, the agency has since pushed back the date of enactment for the rule from Nov. 14 to Jan. 1, 2012, to better allow managers to get their posters prepared. "We've been one of the few agencies that enforce workplace laws that haven't had some kind of posting up," Cleeland explained in August.

In a statement, Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of American Rights at Work, said that "studies show that many employees are unaware of their rights under the [labor relations act], which protects both union and non-union workers. Employers, even those who strive to act lawfully, are similarly uninformed. This modest rule simply helps ensure that everyone knows the rules of the road."

Comments

[tmrn31m]

07:37 AM on 11/16/2011

LOL

[HST]

08:38 PM on 11/15/2011

OMG! No,not a POSTER!

Please Please, make it stop, make it stop.

Oh, the horror, the horror...

[rMatey]

08:29 PM on 11/15/2011

We the workers of America salute the 1%

‹^› ‹(•¿•)› ‹^›

[dumplingpoo]

07:10 PM on 11/15/2011

The NLRB can't be trusted to come up with union neutral language since it is obviously in the union pocket along with Obama. Their insane move to bring suit against Boeing for building a new plant in a Right to Work state, means that anything they want to do should be suspect. Let those highly paid union organizers do their jobs without any help from our government which should be neutral on the issue. Unions are the wrong way to solve anything.

[Big Game Hunter]

03:56 AM on 11/16/2011

Sounds like you oppose people knowing their rights...

[NoBlueDogs]

05:18 AM on 11/16/2011

Organized labor is no more wrong than organized management. You lose.

[madame48]

06:05 PM on 11/15/2011

These big business titans would bring back indentured servitude if the GOP would let them....I am old...and I worry for the future of my grandkids....everyone's grandkids

[QuakerJewish]

05:53 PM on 11/15/2011

The only employer who would fear their employees knowing their rights would be the ones engaging in illegal workplace activities and suppression of legal rights. An honest employer would have no problem with their employess knowing their rights.

With the massive reactionary campaign to discredit the posters, it should be obvious to conservatives that employers are not following the law, yet they scream anyway. So much for the Tea Party claim to support law and order, eh?

[NoBlueDogs]

05:19 AM on 11/16/2011

Honesty? That sounds like socialism! A free America means we can be as dishonest as we want! Rampant fraud, abuse and lying are proof of real FREEDOM!

[QuakerJewish]

08:48 AM on 11/16/2011

Lol. Freedom does mean being free from harm from fraud, abuse, and lying. F&f.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

04:36 PM on 11/15/2011

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
UNDER THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

The NLRA guarantees the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively with their employers, and to engage in other protected concerted activity. Employees covered by the NLRA
* are protected from certain types of employer and union misconduct. This Notice gives you general information about your rights, and about the obligations of employers and unions under the NLRA. Contact the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal agency that investigates and resolves complaints under the NLRA, using the contact information supplied below, if you have any questions about specific rights that may apply in your particular workplace.

http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_Final.pdf

[Tae Pardy Reel Amurkin]

03:43 PM on 11/15/2011

Them Izlameocommienist Laber Onions gots ta GO! The Job Createrz is better then us and we need ta trust them fer havin' are best inrests at heart! Iffen we don't do whut they needs, why the Job Creaters might git 'em all skittish-like and just plumb stop creatin'!

[Big Game Hunter]

03:57 AM on 11/16/2011

But they're so busy creating jobs in Communist Chinese sweatshops for 9 year olds, how can they have the time to create any here?

[aainsser]

02:58 PM on 11/15/2011

The fine is probably higher than most murder cases.

[Dick Fancy]

03:17 PM on 11/15/2011

Especially considering that most murder cases do not result in a fine?

[PeruvianFlakley]

04:05 PM on 11/15/2011

I laughed.

[Russell Masingale]

04:22 PM on 11/15/2011

man a fact based world is hard to live in.

[Prankster]

01:26 PM on 11/15/2011

God forbid worker's rights be posted! It's just outrageous!!!! Who wants informed employees?!@#@!

[jwalter]

12:49 PM on 11/15/2011

Why should a business owner be forced to advertise for an organization that wants to cut into their profits?
I'm all for workers' rights to bargain collectively, but what about the employers' right not to bargain?

[PeruvianFlakley]

04:06 PM on 11/15/2011

As a worker...
I'm on the side of the worker.

Stop arguing your rights away.

[jwalter]

10:29 AM on 11/16/2011

I am a worker. I have the right to work for a wage or find more suitable employment elsewhere.

[The Right is Wrong]

04:11 PM on 11/15/2011

The employer doesn't have a right to not bargain.

[jwalter]

10:25 AM on 11/16/2011

Sure they do. Workers have the right to find better employment elsewhere.

[Horus45]

12:21 PM on 11/15/2011

The right-wing business groups want American labor to compete with Chinese labor.
Think about that, they want our labor to compete with a Communist country.
Not only do they expect us to compete with China,
they do not even want to provide Health Care or other benefits to workers like China does.
They want Communist Lite?
They want Communist wages without providing the benefits of a Communist Society.

[thefreetradejoke]

01:26 PM on 11/15/2011

I'll take "what is neoliberal economics?" for $800, Bob.

[schnauzergirl]

12:18 PM on 11/15/2011

OMG people, its a poster. Once single 11x17 poster. And the actual poster itself is FREE. The law the poster explains has been a law for more than 75 years. This objection, like much of the current GOP stuff out there, defies logical explanation.

[PeruvianFlakley]

04:06 PM on 11/15/2011

Indoctrination!

[MJinCanada]

11:52 AM on 11/15/2011

From the National Federation of Independent Business, National Chamber Litigation Center, Manhattan Institute, Consumer Electronics Association and National Association of Manufacturers:
BOSSES HAVE THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE AND FORM UNIONS, WORKERS DON'T!

Or doesn't anyone else see the irony of business associations arguing against worker associations?

[emmanuel kalu]

04:13 PM on 11/15/2011

very good point.

[jr3houpe1849]

11:30 AM on 11/15/2011

The members of congress are way too busy to be concerned over these problems ...............they must get their insider trades done

[madame48]

06:11 PM on 11/15/2011

And don't forget the urgent "in god we trust" on our money...that took a day...oh and 100 antichoice bills and anti birth control bills