The Women's Movement is the Labor Movement

Today was the first day of the Change to Win Coalition conference, where aggressive new organizing campaigns are the focus of the coalition's growth strategy. Anna Burger was chosen as the head of the new labor federation. Significantly, this is the first time a woman will chair a labor federation.

After my last post, I felt like a loser for not reading the NLRB Weekly Summary containing all the Recent Unpleasantness the Board will serve up for us. I won't re-cap the cases; you can read the bad news for yourself. What struck me about these decisions is Wilma Liebman's willingness to speak out forcefully against the Board's wrongheadedness. To whit:

"The majority's failure to set aside the election here, based on the conduct of supervisor Carlos Adkisson, rasied questions about whether the Board now applies a double standard: one for prounion supervisory conduct and one for antiunion supervisory conduct....Our law with respect to antiunion supervisory conduct must be no less strict than our law with respect to prounion supervisory conduct."

Werthan Packaging, Inc. 345 NLRB No. 30.

"The majority's ruling on both issues are based in part on recent decisions that retreated from well-established principles of Board law that weakened employees'
protection under the Act."

Stanadyne Automotive Corp. 345 NLRB No. 6.

"The majority defends the Employer's statement on grounds that actually establish that they were objectionable. Its failure to address a long line of precedent is startling. Today's decision continues an unfortunate trend of breaking with precedent to give employers greater leeway in making coercive prediction about the effects of unionization. According, I dissent..."

TNT Logistics North America, Inc. 346 NLRB No. 21.

Props to Wilma Liebman for making the record* on the obscene pro-employer excesses of her colleagues, day in and day out. It's women like her that make me feel sheepish about bitching about the low-end anti-union attorneys I deal with every day.

*Also, props to the Weekly Summary editor who gives Liebman every inch of space she deserves, citing Liebman's dissent in every summary. Dear Weekly Summary editor: Thanks and I hope I did not just get you fired.