McCain vows to hold up labor board nominee

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SAM HANANEL

WASHINGTON – Another Obama administration nominee is facing a GOP roadblock over his ties to labor unions.

Arizona Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he would place a hold on the confirmation of union lawyer Craig Becker to join the National Labor Relations Board, saying Becker might try to make labor laws more union friendly without congressional approval.

McCain made his comments just minutes before a Senate panel voted 15-8 to approve Becker's nomination. Under Senate rules, a single lawmaker can block a full vote on the Senate floor.

"This is probably the most controversial nominee that I have seen in a long time," McCain said. His remarks echoed complaints by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and dozens of business groups that claim Becker's views are "out of the mainstream."


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091021/ap_on_go_co/us_labor_board_nominee/print

---

U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It's members are leaving over global warming etc. While this goes on, no NLRB decisions can be made. Workers that lost jobs illegally wait, and wait, and wait,...

[Journeyman]

1. So is this part of being a "Maverick," or just the actions of a whore for his CoC friends? . . .

[Zenlitened]

2. Is this the same John McCain who brought us VP nominee Sara Palin?

Uh, yeah.

McCain's credibility = ZERO.

[Mz Pip]

12. Sarah Palin mainstream?

That's who John McInsane put up to be one heart beat away from the presidency and he's concerned about Becker? Does this guy ever listen to himself?

John really really really wants people to notice he's still around. "Look at me! I can be annoying!" Irrelevant but still annoying.

[saigon68]

14. He is Brain Dead

[beac]

3. I've said it before, I'll say it again... McCain is SCUM. n/t

[izquierdista]

4. 2 words

Recess appointment. Paybacks are hell, Repubs.

[cayanne]

5. What part od voters decision

does he not understand? If we wanted him to select nominees we would have elected him. We didn't!

[No Elephants]

15. The Constitution gives Senators a say in the matter, even if they once ran for President and lost.

[hay rick]

6. McCain shows his true colors.

Just another instance of McCain showing his anti-union, anti-working people instincts. If he does this all day, every day the media will still portray him as a moderate Republican. Ironically, maverick is his brand...

[unkachuck]

7. c'mon johnny....

....be fair, let us have a turn at bat....

"...Becker might try to make labor laws more union friendly..."

....the whole friggin' government is corporation friendly, can't we have one guy?

[DebbieCDC]

8. Why doesn't this irrelevant old f*** just go back to Arizona and flap his gums at the beer heiress

No one else is interested in his senile ramblings.

[Arkana]

9. Looks like the nominee strayed onto John McCain's lawn.

[No Elephants]

16. LOLOL!

[groundloop]

10. What's the point of this Senate rule?

It's absolutely asinine that a single senator can block a nominee from being voted on, under those rules it's amazing that anybody gets Senate approval. When you think about it, it's the equivalent of Double Secret Probation.

What's the point of that rule, and why the hell can't a party with 60 votes get rid of it?

[Mudoria]

13. Kind of defeats the purpose of democracy doesn't it?

[indepat]

24. Wholly in violation with the intent of the Constitution when even one loser can block the winner's

choice. McCain should be politically flogged but good in a rhetorical sense of course. :P

[Ian David]

11. "Hey you nominees, get off my damn lawn!" n/t

[No Elephants]

17. When did "ties to unions" become a disqualifier for public service again? Especially on the NLRB?

For the National *L*A*B*O*R* Relations Board to have no representatives of *L*A*B*O*R* whatever is a National Labor Relations Disgrace.

Why isn't McAin't worried that absence of *L*A*B*O*R* representatives on the National *L*A*B*O*R* Relations Board will make the Board too unfriendly to unions without Congressional consent?

Amazing how they will say any garbage at all, even if it makes no sense whatever, isn't it?

And Congress is still free to overrule the Board with legislation, anyway.

Sit down and shut up, McLoser.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

21. Congress cannot OVERRULE the Board--

Congress can amend the NLRA, which is what EFCA purports to do. How's that working out so far? The EFCA has no chance of being amended into law without being watered down to a toothless version IMHO. Here's what they're (opponents) concerned with:

Sec. 6. <§ 156. Rules and regulations> The Board shall have authority from time to time to make, amend, and rescind, in the manner prescribed by the Administrative Procedure Act (by subchapter II of chapter 5 of title 5), such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act .
http://www.nlrb.gov/about_us/overview/national_labor_relations_act.aspx

Administrative Procedure Act
•UNITED STATES CODE
◦TITLE 5 - GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYEES
■PART I - THE AGENCIES GENERALLY
■CHAPTER 5 - ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE
■SUBCHAPTER II - ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE


§ 551. Definitions
For the purpose of this subchapter -

(1) ''agency'' means each authority of the Government of the United States, whether or not it is within or subject to review by another agency, but does not include -

(A) the Congress;

(B) the courts of the United States;

(C) the governments of the territories or possessions of the United States;

(D) the government of the District of Columbia;
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/laws/administrative-procedure/551.html

Becker and Board Chair Wilma Liebman have written extensively on the need for comprehensuve overhaul of American Labor Law.

[truthisfreedom]

18. The repubes love to bandy about "the US Chamber of Commerce". They pretend it's a Federal office,

but someone needs to remind them that's called the US Department of Commerce.

The US Chamber of Commerce has recently been revealed to be something akin to the Flat Earth Society.

[Brickbat]

19. "Iiiiiiii'm vaaaaaapor...."

Hey McCain? SHUT UP. You're DONE. You are a laughingstock.

[Zorra]

20. One of those things that make you go "duh".

McCain is worried that someone on the NLRB will be labor friendly.

Damn, republicans are just stupid.

[hay rick]

22. stupid AND ugly.

You forgot ugly.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

23. Becker's bio, from the WH press release

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-More-Key-Administration-Posts-2-24-09/

Craig Becker currently serves as Associate General Counsel to both the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College in 1978 and received his J.D. in 1981 from Yale Law School where he was an Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school he clerked for the Honorable Donald P. Lay, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. For the past 27 years, he has practiced and taught labor law. He was a Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law between 1989 and 1994 and has also taught at the University of Chicago and Georgetown Law Schools. He has published numerous articles on labor and employment law in scholarly journals, including the Harvard Law Review and Chicago Law Review, and has argued labor and employment cases in virtually every federal court of appeals and before the United States Supreme Court.

The WSJ :puke: called him "Andy Stern's Go-To Guy" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124226652880418035.html

...Mr. Becker, who is currently the associate general counsel at Andy Stern's Service Employees International Union, is all for giving unions more power over companies in elections. Only he's not sure he needs to wait for Congress.

...In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, he explained that traditional notions of democracy should not apply in union elections.(My 2 cents:They do not, as you can see here) He wrote that employers should be barred from attending NLRB hearings about elections, and from challenging election results even amid evidence of union misconduct. He believes elections should be removed from work sites and held on "neutral grounds," or via mail ballots. Employers should also be barred from "placing observers at the polls to challenge ballots."

...More extraordinary, Mr. Becker advocated a new "body of campaign rules" that would severely limit the ability of employers to argue against unionization. He argued that any meeting a company holds that involves a "captive audience" ought to be grounds for overturning an election. If a company wants to distribute leaflets that oppose the union, for example, Mr. Becker said it must allow union access to its private property to do the same.

Mr. Becker isn't clear about which of these rules can be implemented by NLRB fiat, and which would require an act of Congress, but his mindset is clear enough. He's willing to push NLRB discretion as far as possible to tilt today's labor rules in favor of easier unionization.