Ben Cardin: “this week the Senate is considering two important labor-related nominations: the nominations of John Ring to serve as a…”

“this week the Senate is considering two important labor-related nominations: the nominations of John Ring to serve as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, and Patrick Pizzella to serve as Deputy Secretary of Labor, DOL. Unfortunately, given the nominees' well-documented hostility to the collective bargaining rights of working men and women, I will not vote to confirm either of them. If Mr. Ring is confirmed, he will restore the Board to the 3-2 anti- labor majority, with no assurances that President Trump will fill the Democratic seat of former chairman Mark Gaston Pearce expiring this summer. It is important to note here that nominations to the NLRB have traditionally been confirmed in bipartisan pairs. Mr. Ring authored blog posts calling the NLRB an ``activist'' organization during the Obama administration. In other blog posts, he characterized the NLRB's union election procedures as ``some of the biggest assaults on employer rights in recent history.'' In fact, the election rule simply modernized union election procedures and has actually resulted in slightly fewer union elections.…”