Chicago Sun Times, July 13, 2006, Thursday

Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Chicago Sun Times

July 13, 2006 Thursday
Final Edition

SECTION: EDITORIALS; Pg. 35

HEADLINE: Workers' rights are under siege

BYLINE: John Sweeney and Margaret Blackshere, Special to The Chicago Sun-Times

BODY:
Vanishing retirement security. Rising health-care costs. Gas prices north of $3 a gallon. Workers in every industry are feeling the crunch of an increasingly harsh economy. As if it weren't difficult enough for working families to make ends meet, the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board is poised to issue a series of decisions that could take away the one avenue to economic security left for America's workers: the freedom to form and join unions.
This summer, nurses, construction workers, painters, welders, electricians and others who have exercised their freedom to have a voice on the job are bracing for the latest assault on their rights. In reality, the labor board decisions have the potential to affect workers in every industry. The labor board's rulings in three cases collectively known as "Kentucky River" could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their union protection, while many more could be blocked from joining a union.
At the heart of the issue is an effort to reclassify many workers such as nurses as "supervisors." Unlike employees, "supervisors" do not have protected rights under federal law to form and join unions, and employers often try to classify workers as supervisors in order to deny them their right to union representation. Any skilled or experienced worker who sometimes directs or assigns the work of those less skilled and experienced is vulnerable under a broader interpretation of "supervisor." For example, head or "charge" nurses, who direct less-experienced nurses and aides, could be deemed "supervisors" under the new rule.
The implications of losing union protection run deep for workers. For example, if workers lose their protections as "employees" under federal law, they may be fired or otherwise disciplined for union activity. They'll lose the freedom to choose to join or remain a member of a union.
These decisions come at critical time in history for America's workers. Big business has exploited our nation's weak labor laws, and its allies in Congress and the White House have done nothing to stop it.
With the current composition of the labor board heavily anti-worker, corporate America has become increasingly aggressive in its tactics to further erode workers' rights.
When faced with organizing drives, a quarter of employers fire pro-union workers; more than half threaten to close a work site if workers succeed in forming a union, and three-quarters hire professional anti-worker firms to help them suppress workers' will -- using both legal and illegal tactics, according to research by Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University.
The Bush labor board has been an active partner with big business in denying workers' their freedom to form and join unions. As a body composed of presidential appointees, the labor board reflects the administration's priorities. And given the board's past decisions, those priorities are clear.
In the closing months of 2004, the board issued a series of decisions that stripped workers of their legal protections. In July 2004, the board ruled that graduate teaching and research assistants were not employees, making them ineligible to form a union. In September, the board targeted disabled workers by ruling that if they are receiving rehabilitative services from their employer, they are ineligible to join a union. In November of that same year, the board ruled that temp agency employees, though performing the same duties as regular employees, could not organize without both employer and agency permission.
The Bush board, unlike previous boards, has refused to allow oral arguments in any of its cases. Even the Kentucky River cases have not been opened up for oral arguments, despite the extraordinary importance these decisions hold for the future of America's workers.
Even with ominous storm clouds gathering on the horizon, workers are not about to allow their rights to be trampled without a fight. This week, thousands of nurses and other workers are joining in Illinois and throughout the nation to stand up for our rights. We must urge our leaders to end the gross workers' rights violations that are eroding our nation's once-powerful middle class.
In a democracy, the people have the right to be heard. With working families struggling to keep afloat in an economic climate that's becoming harsher by the day, their union protection is a beacon that helps guide them through the storm. They're not going to sit quietly while the Bush administration engages in an all-out assault on one of the far-too-few protections they have left.
John Sweeney is president of the AFL-CIO, and Margaret Blackshere is president of the Illinois AFL-CIO.