Extra! Extra! Rich Corp Execs Shut Down the NLRB! Then and Now
"Extra! Extra! Rich Corp Execs Shut Down the NLRB!" Believe it or not, that is today's news.
And believe it or not, shutting down the National Labor Relations Board was also big news from 1935-1937, when the American Liberty League (ALL), a collection of prominent corporate executives plus their wealthy allies, put their money where their mouths were to shut the NLRB down.
Right-Wing Obstructionism in the Great Recession
Shutting down the NLRB has also been in the news in recent years. A large part of the NLRB's work involves investigating violations of labor law. Yet just a few months ago, in the lead-up to the 2012 election, Boeing used its wealth and clout to marshal its army of elected federal officials to get out of a labor law violation and weaken the NLRB. Those officials fell in line by threatening to defund the Board for having done its work of enforcing the law, which, in this case, involved investigating charges that Boeing had violated the law and prosecuting Boeing when the investigation showed reasonable cause to believe that Boeing had violated the law.
Not to be outdone, House members set up a hearing to investigate the NLRB's investigation. In the hot seat was acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon. Why was Solomon in the role of only "acting" general counsel in 2011 - and still to this day? Solomon is one of the many people the Senate has refused to confirm to positions as federal judges or heads of agencies.
In the case of the NLRB, it has been years since Republican senators have done their duty and confirmed new NLRB members and a general counsel. That story is a long, sad tale resulting in judicial decisions in NLRB v. Noel Canning and now in NLRB v. New Vista Nursing & Rehabilitation, which have now made it virtually impossible for the NLRB to operate.
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