POLITICS - Another Example of Corporate Control of Our Federal Government

"Protecting workers' rights" by John Sweeney and Richard M. Rogers, Boston Globe

VANISHING retirement security. Rising healthcare costs. Gas prices north of $3 a gallon. Workers in every industry are feeling the crunch of an increasingly harsh economy. As if it weren't difficult enough for working families to make ends meet, the Bush administration's National Labor Relations Board is poised to issue a series of decisions that could take away the one avenue to economic security left for many of America's workers: the freedom to form and join unions.

Rulings by the Bush-appointed board in what are collectively known as the ``Kentucky River" cases could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their union protection, while many more could be blocked from joining unions.

At the heart of the issue in the three cases is an effort to reclassify many workers, such as nurses, as supervisors. Unlike employees, supervisors do not have protected rights under federal law to form and join unions. Employers often try to classify workers that way to deny them their rights to union representation. Any skilled or experienced worker who sometimes directs or assigns the work of those less skilled and experienced is vulnerable under a broader interpretation of what it means to be a supervisor. For example, head or charge nurses, who direct less-experienced nurses and aides, could be deemed supervisors under the new rule.

The implications of losing union protection run deep for workers. For example, if workers lose their protections as employees under federal law, they may be fired or otherwise disciplined for union activity.

These decisions come at a critical time for America's workers. Big business has exploited the nation's weak labor laws, and its allies in Congress and the White House have done nothing to stop it. With the current composition of the Labor Relations Board heavily anti-worker, corporate America has become increasingly aggressive in its tactics to erode workers' rights further.

There's more in the article, which ends with....

In a democracy, the people have the right to be heard. With working families struggling to keep afloat in an economic climate that's becoming harsher by the day, their union protection is a beacon that helps guide them past rocky coasts. They're not going to sit quietly while the Bush administration engages in an all-out assault on one of the far-too-few protections they have left.

...and I add, "while big-business engages in its old, and continuous, all-out assault on workers' rights" while seeking ever increasing profits for their already bulging pockets.