Buffalo News (New York), May 12, 2007, Saturday

Copyright 2007 The Buffalo News

All Rights Reserved

Buffalo News (New York)

May 12, 2007 Saturday

FINAL EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D6

HEADLINE: Law that created NLRB 'is derelict if not dead';

Employee Free Choice Act has union support

BYLINE: By Fred O. Williams - NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

BODY:

A member of the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., says the New Deal law that created her agency may be obsolete.

"By virtually all measures this law is derelict if not dead," Wilma B. Liebman said during a labor law conference Friday in Depew.

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 created the labor board to conduct elections that establish unions at private-sector companies. The board also referees disputes between unions and management.

The law was supposed to allow workers to organize and counter the power of businesses. But unions are increasingly avoiding the election process, which they say is open to abuse by management, and opting for an informal petition system. Representation elections conducted by the board fell 26 percent in 2006, Liebman said.

And the law's protection extends to a shrinking slice of the work force, as union membership slips to historic lows. About eight in 100 private-sector workers are unionized in the U.S.

Meanwhile, labor board decisions and court rulings are finding the law difficult to apply to workplaces that have evolved far beyond conditions of the 1930s.

"Optimism about the New Deal statute has turned into cynicism over ability of the law to protect workers rights," she said.

As one of two Democrats on the five-member board, Liebman is frequently in the minority on board decisions. She was appointed by then-President Clinton in 1997 and reappointed by President Bush.

A former official with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and counsel for the Bricklayers and Teamsters unions, Liebman spoke at the Labor and Employment Law program sponsored by Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. About 90 people attended the event Friday at the Hearthstone Manor.

Liebman's comments echo criticism from labor. Congress is considering a labor-backed bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, that would let unions bypass the formal election system.

But while the NLRB's powers may have shrunk, other employee rights have grown in the decades since the agency was created, said James D. Donathen, a management-side labor attorney at Phillips Lytle in Buffalo. Anti-discrimination law, workplace safety and other protections have grown to transform workplaces.

He was critical of the free choice measure for dismantling secret-ballot process for union elections. The petition system that would replace it is vulnerable to bullying by union supporters, he said.

Sarah Fox, a former NLRB member and ex-Buffalo resident who attended the event, said she favors the union-backed measure, which passed the House in March but faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

"We have a broken process now that workers have to go through," she said.

e-mail: fwilliams@buffnews.com

GRAPHIC: Bill Wippert/Buffalo News Wilma B. Liebman addressed a labor law conference in Depew.