NLRB Warns States Not to Restrict Workers' Organizing Rights

The National Labor Relations Board is threatening lawsuits against four states for violating federal law and the U.S. Constitution in their attempts to restrict the rights of workers to organize unions.

At issue are state constitutional amendments that voters in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah approved Nov. 2, acting on misinformation spread by anti-labor groups. The new amendments bar private sector workers from organizing by any means other than secret-ballot elections.

The National Labor Relations Act specifies that voluntary recognition, when an employer agrees to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards seeking representation, is a legal option for organizing.

The Board has warned the states' attorneys general that enforcing the new laws requiring elections would conflict with the NLRA and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says states must uphold the rights of citizens guaranteed by federal law. "The state amendments impair the rights that federal law grants employees and employers," the NLRB said.

In South Carolina, the amendment is only one of the major challenges facing workers, who have a powerful enemy heading the state's labor department. Anti-labor attorney Catherine Templeton was appointed by newly elected Gov. Nikki Haley to help stop Boeing employees from organizing the company’s plant in Charleston. "We're going to fight the unions and I needed a partner to help me do it," Haley said.

The political attacks on unions have spread to the West Coast, as well, where an Oregon House bill proposes an amendment to the state constitution to let voters decide whether or not to approve public workers' collective bargaining agreements. Under Republican Rep. Kim Thatcher's bill, cities, counties, the state and other public employers would be prohibited from executing a negotiated contract until it can be placed on a general election ballot and approved by voters in the affected jurisdiction.