Burgess Owens: “10(j) injunction processes allow the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, to do the job they set up to do. They…”

“10(j) injunction processes allow the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, to do the job they set up to do. They operated for the last 60 years, done a great job for labor relations in America, but in their zeal to destroy organized labor and their zeal to destroy the workers of this Nation, the Republicans, the majority, has moved in this appropriations bill in a way which is abusive, abuses their power and makes a mockery of the democratic process. It trivializes the institutions that we have built for the last 60 years. The 10(j) process, when it was not in existence, caused the National Labor Relations Board to be impotent in cases which were life-and-death matters. I am going to give my colleagues one extreme example. In August 1989 the company fired employee Jerry Whitaker for having previously filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Board. The Board ordered the company to reinstate Whitaker, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals enforced the Board's order in 1992. The company ignored both the Board and the court. This is Gary Enterprises ignored the court and the Board, and the Board was forced to bring a contempt case and forced the company to comply. After being discharged, Mr. Whitaker, while he is waiting for this process to take place, had to find work. He could not find work. He finally found work hauling logs. He had to sleep in his car.…”