Political Quotes

“Madam President, I thank both my colleagues. It has become customary to expect pendulum swings in labor law each time the White House changes hands and appoints new government officials to lead the Federal executive branch and independent agencies. Sometimes the law changes every 4 years, depending on who is sitting at the NLRB, Department of Labor, OSHA, EEOC, and so on. One year a particular issue might favor labor, and 4 years later the very same issue might favor management. By analogy, at the NLRB, for example, 1 year graduate school teaching assistants are students not covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The next year they are deemed to be employees covered by the act. Then shortly thereafter, they are once again deemed to be students. Soon we may learn they will once again be employees. The same is true with regard to the definition of ``supervisors'' excluded from the National Labor Relations Act. One would think that after 75 years, the NLRB would be able to define who is and who is not a supervisor. Instead, the law changes as the political pendulum swings. What has actually changed other than the people confirmed by the Senate to make the decisions, to call the shots? Without any evidence of changed circumstances in the workplace or relieving the agency's own administrative burden--in fact, without any evident rationale--the only apparent reason for the changes in the NMB's representation election process is in the people who call the shots.…”