Heidi Alexander: “today the Senate will vote on the confirmation of William Emanuel to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board…”

“today the Senate will vote on the confirmation of William Emanuel to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board, NLRB. I am glad that we are moving this nomination because, once Mr. Emanuel is confirmed, we will have a full five-member National Labor Relations Board, which has not been the case in nearly 2 years. The NLRB was created in 1935 by the National Labor Relations Act, NLRA, which was significantly amended in 1947 by the Taft-Hartley Act. It has the statutory mission to promote ``free flow of commerce'' by allowing employees to organize and bargain collectively. The statute provides that ``employees shall have the right to self- organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of such activities.'' The statute further provides that it is an unfair labor practice for unions to ``restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights.'' After years of playing the role of advocate for organized labor, the new Board should return to the role of neutral umpire. Board partisanship did not start under President Obama, but it became worse under him.…”