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Senator Alexander Needs to Read the National Labor Relations Act

In CWA President Cohen's most recent blog post, he lays out the reasons why Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is the “newest worst expert on U.S. labor law.”

In CWA President Larry Cohen's most recent blog post on The Huffington Post, he lays out the reasons why Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is the "newest worst expert on U.S. labor law." Alexander has introduced Senate Bill 2814, which he says is to reform the NLRB but the real intent is to render it useless.

03_NLRB_Reform_Act

Cohen writes:

The big Alexander fabrication is his contention that he would return the board to its initial umpire status. In fact during its first 10 years, the NLRB played a significant role, as collective bargaining coverage rose from 8 to 35 percent and 10 million American workers organized. During that period the general counsel was extremely aggressive in promoting collective bargaining, by law, for the first time in our nation's history.

Every other democracy in the world, but our own, has continued to promote collective bargaining. But in the U.S., with union busting management and their $1,000 per hour corporate lawyers hiding behind free speech rights, collective bargaining in the private sector is on the verge of extinction. Sad that Republican President Gerald Ford was the last president to actually extend collective bargaining coverage, in his case, to employees of private non-profit corporations such as hospitals.

Now the Republican Party and its "labor" leadership want to return to 19th century capitalism. In his senate speech introducing his bill, Alexander said that the NLRB was a significant cause of job flight to other nations like Mexico, with the U.S. losing its advantage. Once again this is a call for laissez-faire capitalism and a race to the bottom – cutting wages and worker protections rather than adopting national trade policy that sets minimum standards for imports that include labor rights.

Cohen writes that this should be a "call to action for working Americans whether or not they have a union." He says:

If Republicans take control of the Senate this November, Alexander will be leading the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. He is telling us now what he will do as chairman. We need to put his picture and quotes about cutting back on labor rights on flyers and distribute them in all seven states with close Senate elections. Sen. Mitch McConnell's statements supporting the Alexander legislation are just as outrageous, and the minority leader is locked in a close election. Those who care about workers' rights need to heed this warning and volunteer to knock on doors, make phone calls and turn out voters on election day.

In 1936 after passage of the National Labor Relations Act, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared on workplace posters saying, "If I was a worker I would join a union."

Now we need posters saying if Republicans win control of the U.S. Senate, Alexander will be gutting the little that's left of U.S. labor law. "Which side are you on?"

Thanks to McConnell and Alexander, we all have a new reason to engage in this debate between now and Nov. 4. This should be a wake up call for all of us.