Sen. Alexander Continues His War on Workers with Hearing on New NLRB Union Election Rule

The attempt by the NLRB to make union representation elections more efficient and more consistent throughout the country has come up against fierce opposition from employer trade groups, including the granddaddy of them all, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The National Labor Relations Board issued the election rule in December and immediately ignited complaints that employers are being ambushed. The Chamber of Commerce not only filed a lawsuit that is now making its way through the courts, it got friends in the U.S. Senate to call a committee hearing.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions even titled their hearing "Ambushed: How the NLRB's New Election Rule Harms Employers & Employees" and stacked their panel of experts with three management-side attorneys to one labor-friendly lawyer. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the committee who has made crippling the NLRB a mission, parroted the Chamber's positions on the new rule better than their lawyer could at Wednesday's farcical proceedings.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said Republicans are again rushing to the defense of the biggest corporations that have an interest in keeping wages low and denying workers a voice to improve their workplace instead of sticking up for American workers.

"When workers want to vote to form a union, they aren't looking for special treatment; they are simply trying to exercise their basic right," Murray said.

Employers use loopholes in the current union election process to delay a straight up-or-down vote and use the delay to intimidate and harass workers about voting for a union.

"Our country should not turn our backs on empowering workers through collective bargaining, especially because that is the very thing that helps so many workers climb into the middle class," she added.