At the Working Life blog, Jonathan Tasini today asks whether unions should abandon the NLRB. I admit his reasoning is tempting: conservative presidents and Congressfolk can significantly hobble the NLRB and cause it to be as much of an impediment to union organizing as it is a facilitator. Better to rely on the union's internal strength to provide organizing victories and leave the government behind in the dust.
And yet, I can't help but hear echoes of Ellen Dannin's argument, that a successful NLRB election puts the imprimatur of the federal government on a bargaining unit, proclaiming, "the US government supports these workers." It makes the bargaining unit a public good, rather than a privately negotiated agreement.
Moreover, there was a reason that NLRA was enacted in the first place: incorporation law gives business an enormous advantage over workers - the right to screw them over with limited liability. NLRA was meant to counteract that advantage, and it can be a powerful tool.
At the end of the day, the NLRA remains on the books, and therefore the US government still has a policy of supporting collective bargaining in principle. With a Democratic breeze blowing, there's at least a fighting chance that the Employee Free Choice Act will be passed. Even if not, there is a chance that we can get similar law passed in the states, to build momentum for this important reform in the years to come. And even failing that, we still have the beginnings of a legal strategy to strengthen NLRA in Prof. Dannin's groundbreaking work. So I think we should continue to try and strengthen the NLRA, rather than abandon it.
