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Washington agencies continue to roll out regulations and rules in favor of their Big Labor patrons. The NLRB has been particularly busy. In additional to finalizing the “organizing rights” posting rule, the board also overturned two decisions, making it more difficult for employees to get rid of a union they no longer want. First to be overturned was the 2007 Dana Corp decision. In Dana Corp, if an employer recognized a union by “show of interest” alone (in other words, without giving employees the chance to vote on representation), an immediate appeal by at least 30% of the employees (or a rival union) could force the issue to an election. In overturning this decision, the board said the union should be able to operate for a “reasonable period of time” before the employees were allowed the opportunity to vote it out. The board defined the time
Continue reading Union Bailout Update – Sept 1, 2011
 In compliance with Executive Order 13563, the DOL has published its preliminary plan for A Simpler Smarter Regulatory System. (Hope springs eternal.)
So far, it looks like the only regulatory “streamlining” on tap over at the OLM would be cutting the LM-30 disclosure (Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report) from nine pages down to two with union stewards no longer required to report because, you know, unions are so buried in regulatory paperwork!
And the DOL is requesting your feedback! So if you have any suggestions on DOL, OSHA, EBSA, or OLM reporting requirements or regulations (that you could share in polite company) speak up here.
  
National Right to Work President Mark Mix appeared on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” to discuss Hilda Solis’s efforts to undermine union transparency by rolling back LM-2 requirements.
Be sure to visit the LRI Union Free YouTube Channel to view this and other entertaining and informative videos.
 Meanwhile, just down the avenue, the Department of Labor has launched a smart phone application to help workers track their hours at work. The free app is available for download at the DOL website. The application also prompts users to contact the DOL Wage and Hour Division Help Line.
“I am pleased that my department is able to leverage increasingly popular and available technology to ensure that workers receive the wages to which they are entitled,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. “This app will help empower workers to understand and stand up for their rights when employers have denied their hard-earned pay.”
Spoken like a true organizer, Hilda. Note how Solis makes no mention of the possibility that the program just might help a random worker
Continue reading The New Empowering DOL Phone App
 First they billed it as a “Women’s History Month Event Honoring Women with the Courage to Make a Difference sponsored by the new White House Council on Women and Girls”. (Because Men and Boys don’t need White House Councils.) Then it morphed into a “Tribute to Women on the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.” Then, at show time, the sign on stage read simply “Women Organize!” but by two minutes into Hilda Solis taking the podium it was clear this was nothing but one big labor lovin’ schmooze fest leading into the kick-off this week of Obama’s 2012 campaign.
In her opening remarks, Solis incorrectly stated that the Triangle victims “gave their lives trying to organize,” carrying on the century long tradition of shamelessly exploiting
Continue reading White House Labor Love-in
 According to Congressional testimony last week by union defender John Logan, Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State, the answer is no. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions in a hearing on union accountability and transparency Logan called only upon his experience running a labor study center in San Francisco to conclude that all American union members want to know about their union’s finances can be found in the barebones pre-Bush LM-2.
Logan then went on to cite LRI’s use of the new more detailed LM-2 in union campaigns as one compelling reason to revoke the new standards. Logan writes, “One of the largest union avoidance firms in the nation, Labor Relations Institute, Inc. (LRI), tells employers that, ‘Facts
Continue reading Should Prospective Members See Union Finances?
 The Government Accounting Office will release a report today slamming the methods used by the Department of Labor to determine the prevailing wage required by law on government projects. If “prevailing wage rates are too high, they potentially cost the federal government and taxpayers more for publicly funded construction projects,” according to the report. The report criticizes the DOL for using data from projects with six or fewer workers and for not collecting data frequently enough to accurately reflect changes in economic conditions. The GAO also cites a lack of transparency in how the DOL calculates rates.
Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican and a member of the workforce protections subcommittee, said lawmakers aren’t sure federally funded projects paid wages that were accurate or fair. “We
Continue reading GAO Report: Taxes Wasted on Poor DOL Davis-Bacon Calculations
 The Department of Labor has launched a new website to enable the public to discuss ways to improve the department’s regulatory processes. The website was launched in response to Executive Order 13563, issued in January of this year.
The DOL asks for comments on specific regulations with citations if possible and “in as much detail as possible, an explanation of why a regulation or reporting requirement should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed, as well as specific suggestions of ways the Department can better achieve its regulatory objectives.” Interested parties can submit new ideas and concerns or comment on discussions in progress.
Have fun.
 Labor Relations INK
In this issue:
Union Bailout Update New, Useful Websites Say Goodbye To More NJ Teamsters Scoreboard, Social Media Spotlight, Only In A Union and more…
Union Bailout Update
 The fur is beginning to fly as new administrations, both in D.C. and in many of the states, begin to tie union issues to budget problems, and work to unravel the choke hold that Big Labor has had on legislative and regulatory processes the last few years. The NLRB backed down when 4 state Attorneys General rebuffed the NLRB General Counsel’s threat to sue. In a letter back to the
Continue reading INK: February 25, 2011
Labor Relations INK
In this issue:
EFCA Update CNA Delusional? Trial Underscores Mob/Big Labor Connection Labor Relations Insight, ER Tip Of The Month and more…
Labor Relations Insight by Phillip Wilson
 The Republicans gave the Democrats a spanking in the mid-term elections this week. Voters rebuked Democrats in an unprecedented manner. The election results raise a number of perplexing questions. What are Democrats planning to do about the Tea Party movement? For that matter, what are Republicans going to do about them (after all, in retrospect the Tea Party probably cost the Republicans control of the Senate by nominating a couple of nit-wits in the Nevada
Continue reading INK: November 4, 2010
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