NLRB Still Broken: After Nearly 20 Year Battle, Workers Die Before $12 Million Settlement Reached

Even under President Obama, the gridlocked National Labor Relations Board is still broken in responding to anti-union abuses. A case in point: After nearly 20 years of a protracted legal battle, four construction unions finally reached a settlement with Flour Daniel, Inc. over its practice of discriminating against union organizers who apply for work. Flour Daniel will pay $12 million in back pay and interest, which will be allocated to 167 union members, who will receive between $8,000 and $217,000.

But in waiting for resolution of the case, some employees died before the settlement was reached.

A statement by presidents of four construction unions declared:

Sadly, more than a dozen of the discriminatees have passed on in the years since these charges were filed, illustrating the need for labor law reform in the United States, beginning with the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The legal right of workers to organize is routinely abused. It should never take two decades for workers to receive justice under the law.

As the AFL-CIO Now Blog reported:

The settlement ends several cases before the National Labor Relations Board, brought by three of the unions--Boilermakers, Electrical Workers and Plumbers and Pipe Fitters. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters is also a party to the litigation. Some of the cases date back to the early 1990s.

In a joint statement, the presidents of the four unions said:

This settlement is unprecedented for this type of case. It is the largest in terms of back pay, and it is the longest. The combined cases took nearly 20 years to litigate through the Labor Board and the appeals process. Today marks a huge victory for the union construction trades and for the individuals who were treated unfairly by Fluor Daniel.

Yet even the Obama administration's NLRB has been slow to respond to crises, including not following through on its findings of unfair labor practices by the private equity firm owners of the Stella D'Oro plant -- thus essentially enabling the plant to close. As Ray Scannell, director of research for the international bakery workers union told me in an e-mail:

What Stella illustrates is both the inadequacy of the law and the ineffectiveness of the enforcers.

The inability to stop the predatory destruction of the company shows how weak labor protections are AND how ineffective the NLRB's office of the General Counsel (which runs the Regions as well as the DC enforcement offices) is.

Brynwood and its minions openly defied the law and the Board and the latter tucked their tales between their legs and shrugged. The NLRB is like the Keystone Cops.

In addition, the NLRB has three pending appointments from Obama who haven't been approved yet, so it's a two-person board that's put off major decisions -- and its gridlock and decisions are being challenged before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, workers at plants like Flour Daniel and Stella D'Oro find themselves either out of jobs - or dead -- before the NLRB acts. As the 19th-Century British politician said, "Jusice delayed is justice denied."

You can read more about this crisis in labor law enforcement at the Working In These Times blog.

Comments

[medicinecat]

The world is watching closely. What Obama does for ordinary working people will be the true test of his presidency.

[Adartist777]

We certainly didn't receive any help from the NLRB when we tried to unionize our newspaper in 2002. Bush had completely gutted the system by the time we reported abuse from our employer to the NLRB. Not only that, but what was left of the NLRB was filled with anti-union bureaucrats.

Labor has brought so much to the average union and non-union employee over the years. Unions helped eradicate child labor, gave us the 40 hour week (people worked seven days a week before this), gave us the weekend and benefits such as holiday pay and health insurance that employees enjoy today (if they are employed). Unions also gave us the minimum wage.

It's true that unions were taken over by criminal elements in the early part of the twentieth century, but that is in the past. Unions have tried to adapt to changes in society with great success with new rules such as not defending slackers in the workplace and challenges based on the digital age.

Our society needs unions to keep employers in check from preventing employee abuse in the future. However, with the economy in shambles, many employees are afraid to organize. We need strong labor laws such as card check to eliminate employer abuse. We also need a strong NLRB.

[Jannsmoor]

You are exactly right. Bush gutted most of our government. It will take more like 10 years than 10 months to rebuild the destruction he wrought on our country.

All you need to know is that the Dow has shot up to 10,000 while workers have taken wage and benefit cuts to understand how badly America needs stronger labor unions.

[seawolf77]

Oh this is ripe. Just outlasted them. I can see Ronald Reagan pinching himself in his grave.

[Eve Tahmincioglu - Huffpost Blogger]

It's a sad statement on the rights of workers in this country. Seats on key boards that oversee employee rights, including the NLRB and the EEOC, have been left vacant for too long. Here's a blog post I wrote about the issue. (http://www.evetahmincioglu.com/web/blog/2009/06/18/workers-shafted-by-empty-seats-at-nlrb-eeoc/) It just tells you how we view these key agencies, not just our politicians but all of us. Why hasn't there been an outcry?