Last week, the United States Chamber of Commerce issued a report intended to provide a blueprint to the Trump administration as it looks toward formulating a labor relations agenda. “The Record of the National Labor Relations Board in the Obama Administration: Reversals Ahead?” is a 162-page report, summarizing the most significant labor relations developments of the last eight years. Many of these developments will be well-known to readers of this blog and our annual reviews, but the report provides a very helpful compilation as well as a summary of the ongoing significance of each.
As the Chamber explains in its blog post announcing its publication, the report addresses among other issues:
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The board undercutting “management rights” clauses to increase union leverage during collective bargaining;
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The board changing the law of successorship to more often require bargaining obligations for successors before instituting new terms and conditions of employment;
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The board’s effort to stretch the meaning of “supervisor” to expand coverage of the National Labor Relations Act;
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The board limiting employers’ abilities to hire replacement workers in order to continue operating during a strike; and
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Requiring employers to continue remitting employee union dues even after expiration of the collective bargaining agreement, thereby increasing union bargaining leverage.
The U.S. Chamber’s hope that this study will provide a guide for the regulatory agenda ahead mirrors the testimony of many witnesses in the February 14, 2017 hearing held by the House Education and the Workforce Committee, “Restoring Balance and Fairness to the National Labor Relations Board.“
