The NLRB’s third GOP member could be official next week:
This year, NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey has been focused on clearing an enormous case backlog that is a direct result of Abruzzo-era policies. That previous version of the Board also churned out aggressive decisions including Cemex, Stericycle, Thryv, and McLaren Macomb, which collectively were part of Abruzzo’s enforcement push against employers.
Current Chair James Murphy has been clear about adhering to tradition on waiting to overturn precedent until the Board has a 3-1 majority. That time could soon come. The Senate HELP Committee scheduled a hearing for Jun. 10 to consider the nomination of James Macy, who has four decades of management-side labor and employment law experience under his belt. Additionally, the Board will take up Democrat David Prouty’s re-nomination. He will presumably be prepared for dissent duty once Biden-era decisions start falling in favor of more employer-friendly versions.
The UAW declares “war” on the Dauch Corporation:
Shawn Fain must have remembered that the UAW still represents some auto workers because he surfaced last weekend with a “Time’s up” speech.
On Monday, around 1,000 workers went on strike at General Motors supplier Dauch Corporation, formerly American Axle, in Three Rivers, Michigan. Local 2093 Bargaining Chairman Josh Jager quickly did the press rounds to proclaim “war” against Dauch over wages. The union is demanding that top hourly wages be raised from $22 to $30.
Dauch CFO Chris May revealed that GM does not have an alternate supplier for heavy-duty pickup parts, and Jager believes that GM has about two weeks of supplies to maintain production.
A group of nurses is taking on the blocking charge problem:
The Biden era’s blocking charge policy is a beloved tool of unions for blocking decertification votes by filing ULPs. As we have previously discussed, this policy works a travesty upon employee choice by allowing unproven charges to protect unions from removal.
The National Right to Work Foundation has been highlighting cases where workers are asking the NLRB to overturn the blocking charge policy and return to the Election Protection Rule. Such a reversal would keep decertification processes moving forward regardless of pending ULP charges. The NRTW foundation is now showcasing another case involving hundreds of George Washington University Hospital nurses asking the NLRB to review the blocking charge policy, so that they can vote on decertifying the District of Columbia Nurses Association (DCNA) union.
According to the foundation, the nurses’ request for review “points out that the NLRA does not grant the NLRB the authority to invent rules to stymie worker-requested decertification elections.” Stay tuned there.
CWA keeps pushing into new “passion”-work industries:
This week, Dark Horse Comics announced that they voluntarily recognized Dark Horse Workers United, a CWA affiliate that will now represent around 70 workers at the publishing house known for titles including The Umbrella Academy and Hellboy. These workers are following in the footsteps of Image Comics workers, who unionized as Comic Book Workers United in 2023, also affiliated with CWA, which has been poaching beyond its telecommunications base to organize tech workers and ski patrollers.
The workers at Dark Horse Comics’ headquarters near Portland, Oregon, first announced their union drive with the key goal of addressing wages. Graphic designer and organizer Riley VanDyke claimed that the “company leans on the ‘passion tax’ to get talented people for very low cost.” However, it’s not news that unions cannot solve cost-of-living issues in larger metropolitan areas, although they certainly won’t stop making false promises to workers that they can move mountains.
ALU Co-Founder Chris Smalls will not be happy about this:
Polarizing former union president Chris Smalls is not universally beloved at a prominent progressive site, which is evident in a column by Annie Levin. As labor watchers know, Smalls co-founded the grassroots campaign that managed to unionize a lone Amazon warehouse in April 2022. ALU has had no further success despite hitching its wagon to the Teamsters. He’s become embroiled in several controversies including multiple arrests and jail time for unpaid child support, and overall, his attention-seeking antics suggest that he’s much more interested in fame than any serious action involving labor.
This week, Smalls’ memoir, When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class, was published. In a review, Levin revealed her conflicted viewpoint regarding his behavior. “It is no accident that the only Amazon warehouse to win its NLRB election was led by a former party promoter,” Levin concluded. “It is a shame that he was too overwhelmed by labor’s structural limitations, and enamored of his own celebrity, to keep using his voice to build worker power.”
