Federalizing the Right to Work More/Earn Less

An earlier post noted that Bush has suspended the Davis-Bacon Act for post-Katrina reconstruction. In other disheartening news, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing on September 8 to determine whether to make "right to work" national. The speaker list included Mark Mix, of the National Right to Work Committee. Fred Feinstein, former General Counsel of the NLRB, testified that "compulsory unionism" is already prohibited by Taft-Hartley, but he probably felt like a evolutionary biologist at a Kansas school board meeting. No union officials spoke, but representatives from Boeing, Penloyd and Colt Manufacturing testified.

Although that legislation (H.R. 500 - the National Right to Work Act) is predicted to fail, legislation requiring secret ballot elections before recognition (outlawing card check agreements and recognition) looks like it has more legs. The Secret Ballot Protection Act (H.R. 874) has been hanging out in the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations since March, but its supporters will probably try to push it through before the end of the Bush administration. I would not expect to see it before the 2006 Congressional election, but guess they would try to push it through soon after, depending on whether the Republicans hold the majority.

I will do a recap on the new Board decisions later in the day. Check back later. You already know they suck. The question is, just how hard do they suck?