Senate Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday to radically overhaul the federal National Labor Relations Board, saying it has become a tool of special interests. The changes would make it easier to challenge NLRB actions in court and strip the board of its partisan majority by moving it from five to six members.
“The board was supposed to be an umpire. It was created 79 years ago for that purpose. Over time it has become more of an advocate for one interest group or another depending on whether we had a Republican or Democratic administration in power,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the legislation’s sponsor. Alexander is the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The move was denounced by Democrats such as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who slammed Republicans for not supporting an equal pay labor law the majority brought up Monday. The legislation is unlikely to get out of committee in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The NLRB is the federal agency that enforces the National Labor Relations Act, the main law covering private-sector labor unions. Its five board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Two seats are reserved for the minority party, but the White House gets to pick the other three. The board rules by simple majority.
Long a little-noticed agency, President Obama has made a point of ensuring the board has had a full, active quorum and his appointees have included several top labor union attorneys. The current board’s actions, such as issuing unfair labor practice complaints against Walmart and McDonald’s, have prompted sharp criticism from the Right. In the latter case, the NLRB’s general counsel has said he will treat the corporation as a employer at all franchises, even though 80 percent are privately owned, a potentially major change in franchise law.
Alexander’s bill, which is co-sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would change it to a six-member board split evenly between Republican and Democratic appointees. It would require at least four members to approve a decision, meaning no one party would control the board’s actions. In practice, this would make the board more likely to deadlock in controversial cases.
The legislation also would allow any entity subject to a complaint issued by the NLRB’s general counsel to appeal it to federal court up to 30 days after the complaint was issued. Currently, complaints cannot be appealed until the full board has ruled, a process that can take months.
Alexander’s bill also would allow cases to be appealed to federal court if they haven’t been resolved within a year. It would give the subject of complaint the right to demand internal NLRB documents related to the complaint. Finally, if the NLRB failed to resolve 90 percent of its cases within one year, it would have its budget cut by 20 percent.
“Usually, if you know you are going to lose your funding, it gets your attention and you get things done,” Alexander said.
