As predicted, the Senate failed in its attempt to overturn the recent National Mediation Board election rule change, so it will remain open season on airline organizing. Across the hall at the NLRB, the agency is promising to sharpen one of the tools in the Big Labor’s organizing arsenal. From the moment an organizing campaign begins, it is almost impossible for a company to fire an employee without the union filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge. The union will always claim that the employee was fired due to his or her organizing efforts, or even attitudes toward the union, whether true or not. The NLRB announced it will expedite investigations into such claims. It appears even Senate Democrats are tiring of the endless parade of former union lawyers finding their way into Presidential appointment slots. John Sullivan, a former SEIU attorney linked to several union scandals and the 2nd largest fine in Federal Election Commission history, had been appointed to the FEC by President Obama over a year ago but still awaits confirmation. When a Democrat Senator sought for unanimous consent for a long list of held-up appointments earlier this summer, Sullivan was left off that list. In California, State Senator Darrell Steinberg has moved to push a Trojan Horse through the legislature, in the form of Senate Bill 1474 that would eliminate secret ballot elections in unionization drives for agricultural workers. Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed similar attempts before, and will likely do so again.
