All political pundits, experts and commentators agree that this presidential election is one for the history books. What we, as union members, must realize is that if Donald Trump is elected as our next president, unions will also be history.
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There is so much at stake as we cast our ballot in this election.
Read about where the candidates stand on issues important to working families, and then make your choice for the candidate who clearly is on the side of the workers and middle class.
Consider how our next president will lead the National Labor Relations Board
Another reason this vote is so important for union members is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and presidential appointments.
The NLRB was formed in 1935 when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Wagner Act (also called the National Labor Relations Act) into law as a part of the New Deal program. The responsibility of this board is to govern relations between unions, employees and employers. This includes the oversight of employees’ right to organize and bargain collectively.
Most importantly, the board of five people who are charged with hearing and resolving labor disputes through various channels are appointed by the U.S. president. That gives the president the opportunity to decide if this board continues to act in the interests of employees under the Department of Labor, or in the interests of employers under what could be more appropriately called the “Department of Management.”
Under President Barack Obama, the NLRB has most recently ruled to allow graduate students to organize, limited the right of employers to replace striking workers, made it easier for fast food workers to organize, and significantly streamlined the time it takes to hold a union election in the workplace.
Under his predecessor, President George W. Bush, the Department of Labor and the NLRB were definitely more like the Department of Management. His appointees to the board denied graduate students and other groups of workers the right to organize, refused the right of nonunion workers to have a co-worker present when being disciplined in the workplace, and worked to make union organizing possible through card check recognition illegal. These actions were in addition to an executive order to bar project labor agreements on federally funded projects.
In short, pathway after pathway to a larger union movement was blocked under the Bush Administration and his conservative Republican platform. Now, how do you think it will go for unions under a Trump Administration?
Pass it Around!
Download materials to pass around the job site and at meetings here:
If You Care About Your Job
Hillary Clinton Will Invest in Our Future
Without a Plan, There Are No Jobs
