House GOP’s Faux ‘Jobs Agenda’ Continues Republican Assault On Organized Labor

House GOP’s Faux ‘Jobs Agenda’ Continues Republican Assault On Organized Labor
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/29/306759/gop-jobs-assault-labor/


The Washington Post noted today that House Republicans “are planning votes for almost every week this fall in an effort to repeal environmental and labor requirements on business that they say have hampered job growth.” This effort is part of the GOP’s supposed jobs agenda, which, as Center for American Progress economist Adam Hersh wrote last week, is much more myth than reality-based.

“Across the board, the Republican ‘jobs agenda’ reduces demand, undermines middle class families, blocks development of renewable energy industries, and recreates the possibility of future financial crises,” Hersh wrote. And the GOP’s “jobs agenda” also continues the Republican assault on organized labor, with two of the “Top 10 Job-Destroying Regulations” identified in a memo by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) targeting rules having to do with unionization:

– NLRB’s Boeing Ruling (Week of September 12): On April 20, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint against The Boeing Company for the alleged transfer of an assembly line from Washington to South Carolina. Yet, not one union employee at Boeing’s Puget Sound facility has lost his or her job as a result of the proposed South Carolina plant. Still, the NLRB is pursuing a “restoration order” against Boeing that would cost South Carolina thousands of jobs and deter future investment in the United States. H.R. 2587, the Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act, sponsored by Rep. Tim Scott (SC), would take the common sense step of preventing the NLRB from restricting where an employer can create jobs in the United States. <...>

– NLRB’s Ambush Elections (Winter): This summer, the NLRB issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that could significantly alter current union representation election procedures, giving both employers and employees little time to react to union formations in the future. The result will increase labor costs and uncertainty for nearly all private employers in the U.S. The House will soon consider legislation that will bring common sense to union organizing procedures to protect the interests of both employers and their workers.