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As expected, President Barack Obama vetoed a GOP-authored bill that killed streamlined union recognition election rules issued by the National Labor Relations Board. And he did so on March 31 with a ringing endorsement of unions.
“A while back, the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, put forward some common-sense, modest changes to streamline the voting process for folks who wanted to join a union. And unfortunately, the Republican Senate and House decided to put forward a proposal to reverse those changes. I think that’s a bad idea,” the President said.
The new rule lets unions and companies file documents electronically. It tells both employers and unions when to file needed documents and sets deadlines for receipt of information both sides need to participate in election campaigns and appeals. It also consolidates complaints about the election into one complaint to be filed after the vote.
The rule requires employers to provide available personal phone numbers and e-mail addresses, as well as home addresses, to the eligible-voter lists they must give to the board, to be passed on to the union, after a verified representation election request.
“Unions historically have been at the forefront of establishing things like the 40-hour work week, the weekend, elimination of child labor laws, establishing fair benefits and decent wages. And one of the freedoms of folks here in the United States is, is if they choose to join a union, they should be able to do so. We shouldn’t be making it impossible for that to happen.”
Obama also took the time to declare the White House will host a summit on workers’ rights this fall, because “middle-class families and folks trying to work their way into the middle class still have some big difficulties” even in the recovering economy.
“Part of what we want to do is to make sure that we give workers the capacity to have their voices heard, to have some influence in the workplace, to make sure that they’re partners in building up the U.S. economy, and that growth is broad-based, and that everybody is benefitting just as everybody is contributing,” he said.
The summit will also include small businesses, academics and organizers. “I think everybody wants to make sure that even as the economy is growing, everybody is playing a part in that growth and everybody is sharing and contributing to that success,” he said.