A Senate committee last week voted to confirm a prominent labor union attorney as a member of the National Labor Relations Board despite concerns from NRF and others that he might attempt to implement key provisions of the controversial Employee Free Choice Act union organizing bill administratively rather than waiting for Congress to decide whether to pass the measure.
The nomination of Craig Becker was approved 13-10 along party lines by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last Thursday. But the nomination won’t become final unless Becker receives confirmation from the full Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a vote later today to cut off a Republican filibuster of the nomination, and a vote on the nomination itself will follow if the filibuster is cut off.
Becker has been associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union since 1990 and a staff counsel for the AFL-CIO since 2004.
With both of those unions strongly supporting EFCA, HELP Committee member Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said during a hearing on Wednesday that he was concerned by Becker’s “willingness to maintain a balance” on issues that would come before the NLRB.
“Some have expressed concerns that Mr. Becker’s past writings have indicated a belief that the NLRB has the authority to make some of the dramatic changes included in the card check bill without congressional action,” Isakson said.
“If Mr. Becker is confirmed and he imposes aspects of EFCA and his other extreme ideas through NLRB rulemakings and decisions, both worker privacy and our economy could suffer,” the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, whose legislative committee is co-chaired by NRF, said in a letter to the committee.
“Many of his beliefs would disrupt years of established precedent and the delicate balance in current labor law,” another letter to the committee signed by two dozen business groups, including NRF, said. “We have significant concerns with the Board’s ability to radically interpret existing labor law should Mr. Becker be confirmed.”
In a separate letter sent to the full Senate late last week, NRF asked that senators vote against the procedural vote to cut off the filibuster and against the nomination as well.
“Mr. Becker’s previous writings both as an employee of SEIU and the AFL-CIO and throughout his academic career have demonstrated that his views about fundamental aspects of U.S. labor relations and the role of the NLRB are far outside of the mainstream,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister said in the letter. “His past commentary includes endorsing radical concepts which unduly favor the rights of labor unions while dismissing employer prerogatives in union organizing campaigns and in the union election process. The NRF is also concerned that Mr. Becker’s nomination to the Board would result in unproven policies that would dramatically restrict the free speech rights of employers in labor/management relations.”
Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, voted in favor of Becker’s confirmation but acknowledged that “it has been suggested that you are coming to the board with an agenda.”
Becker denied that he has any plans to use the NLRB seat to circumvent Congress on EFCA.
“The reason the Employee Free Choice Act has been introduced in Congress and that question is before the Congress and not the board is that the (National Labor Relations Act) clearly precludes certification in the absence of a secret ballot election,” Becker said.
“The law is clear,” he said. “The decision as to whether an alternative route to certification should be created rests with Congress, not the board.”
EFCA’s key provision would effectively take way the right to secret ballots in union organizing elections by requiring instead that the NLRB certify a union if presented with union cards signed by 51 percent of workers. The measure would also cut off negotiations over initial union contracts if agreement had not been reached in 120 days and instead require government arbitrators to impose a contract.
The five-member NLRB currently has only two positions filled – Chairman Wilma Liebman, a Democrat, and member Peter Schaumber, a Republican. The nominations of Mark Pearce, a Democrat and union attorney, and Brian Hayes, currently labor policy director for HELP Committee Republicans, were approved by the committee in October but are still awaiting action from the full Senate.
With Republican Scott Brown sworn in Thursday night after winning the seat previously held by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the GOP now has the 41 votes in the Senate, the number needed to block confirmations and key procedural votes on a variety of issues if all Republicans vote together. Reid said if the GOP attempts to block confirmation votes, President Obama might appoint Becker and other officials during periods when the Senate is in recess. Recess appointments are not subject to confirmation but Becker would be able to serve until the end of next year.
The article above is reprinted from the current issue of Washington Retail Insight, NRF’s weekly e-newsletter covering public policy issues affecting the retail industry.
