The following statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was released Tuesday:

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
On Today's Bush Labor Board Decision That Will Strip Workers of Union Rights
October 3, 2006

Today, the National Labor Relations Board, dominated by Bush administration appointees, announced a decision which welcomes employers to strip millions of workers of their right to have a union by reclassifying them as supervisors in name only.  Supervisors do not have protected rights under the National Labor Relations Act to improve their lives by forming and joining unions.

The case - - Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. -- was one of three cases announced today by the NLRB in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision in NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care.  The Oakwood case is the lead case, and sets a broad new standard which will determine whether millions of workers are supervisors.

While the Supreme Court decision cracks open the door to a redefinition of who is a supervisor, the decision by the NLRB virtually kicks it in.  In fact, according to NLRB members Liebman and Walsh in their dissent regarding the Oakwood case, today's decision threatens to create a new class of workers under Federal labor law: workers who have neither the genuine prerogatives of management, nor the statutory rights of ordinary employees.  In that category may fall most professionals (among many other workers), who by 2012 could number almost 34 million, accounting for 23.3 percent of the workforce.  An Economic Policy Institute study has found that up to 8 million workers could be affected immediately by the decisions.

Today's decision is the latest in the Bush-appointed NLRB's legal maneuvering to deny as many workers as possible their basic right to have a voice on the job and improve their living standards through their union.  Over the last several years, the NLRB has chipped away at that right by limiting the eligibility of disabled workers, teaching assistants, temporary workers and others to join unions.  Now, at the very time middle class workers need more help, not less, the NLRB is taking a broad swing.

The immediate implications of the Oakwood Healthcare Inc. case are devastating to workers in the health care industry and potentially in other industries where professional employees direct or assign the work of others.  The Board rewrote broad definitions of supervisory duties, such as assigning work, responsibility to direct and use of independent judgment.  In fact, the Board decided that if an employee spends as little as 10 to 15 percent of their time performing supervisory functions that they will be considered to be supervisors, and thus likely stripped of their right to have a union. 

The other two cases released today, on Golden Crest Healthcare Center and Croft Metals, Inc., were applications of the new standard set forth in the Oakwood decision.  While in both these cases the Board decided that the workers were not considered supervisors, this provides little indication of how future cases will be decided under the new standard. 

It is a sad day for every American who works to put food on the table and gas in their cars, when the rights they count on can be cynically eviscerated by a Labor Board that is informed more by political ideology than sound legal analysis.

The NLRB should protect workers' rights -- not eliminate them.  If the Administration expects us to take this quietly, they're mistaken.  Over the next week, working people will be coming together in the streets in cities across the nation to make sure everyone knows the Bush Administration is slashing workers right to have a voice on the job.

The following statement was distributed Tuesday by RNs Working Together, a coalition of unions representing nurses and other health-care professionals:

WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Labor Relations Board, in a distressing ruling today on the definition of a supervisor, sets out a road map by which employers can deny union rights to nurses and other skilled workers and thus jeopardize patient care, said RNs Working Together, a coalition of the 11 AFL-CIO unions that represent nurses.

The NLRB, in its decision on three cases involving registered nurses and other skilled workers, set the standard by which employers can consider workers as supervisors.  For instance, the board said workers are supervisors if they -- on a regular basis, even if its infrequent -- assign an employee to a particular unit or location, to work at a certain time, or to do a significant task.  Also, they would be supervisors if they are held accountable for job tasks they assign.

"Employers now have a road map for excluding workers from a union," said Candice Owley, RN, chair of AFT Healthcare, a division of the American Federation of Teachers.  "The Bush-dominated board is giving employers the blueprint to make workers supervisors.  Nurses have been patients most reliable advocate and this decision could silence their ability to speak out  about workplace problems."

Nurses and other skilled workers who are considered supervisors under the decision technically could still join unions, but they would not be legally protected from being fired or disciplined.  

"The NLRB ignored facts and common sense -- that nurses use independent judgment and direct the flow of work during their shifts," said Kathy Sackman, RN, president of the United Nurses of California-AFSCME.  "That makes nurses responsible caregivers and patient advocates, not supervisors."  The decision, she added, would greatly complicate and confuse nurses roles and responsibilities.

Cheryl Johnson, RN, president of United American Nurses, said: "Nurses make  decisions every day that are critically important, including decisions that require directing other staff.  But that doesn't mean we are suddenly transformed into hospital supervisors."

Healthcare workers consistently say one of the most important benefits of  union membership is protection from retaliation -- being fired or disciplined -- when they raise concerns about working conditions and patient care. Without that shield, nurses would be deterred from speaking out.

Added Deborah Hayes, RN, healthcare coordinating committee member for the  Communications Workers of America:  "The governments move to restrict the  voice of nurses is illegitimate because it will arbitrarily prevent many nurses from carrying out one of our most important jobs -- advocating for quality patient care."

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities continue to be plagued with a critical shortage of nurses, unsafe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, dangerous and exhausting mandatory overtime, inadequate supplies and other problems undercutting patient care -- all issues that are central to nurse unions. 

"The NLRB's decision turns a blind eye to these problems and will likely make them a lot worse," said UAN's Cheryl Johnson.   
       
The 11 unions comprising RN's Working Together will be actively encouraging  hospitals and other healthcare facilities to allow nurses to choose for  themselves whether they want to be members of a union.  "Hospitals don't have to, and shouldn't, take the bait from the NLRB and deny nurses the right to union protection," AFT's Owley said.

The NLRB rejected calls from a bipartisan group of members of Congress to hold oral arguments on the cases that led to today's ruling.  The board has held no oral arguments on any cases since President George W. Bush came into office.  By contrast, there had been up to 10 a year in previous administrations.

This latest NLRB decision follows a string of anti-worker decisions issues since this administrations appointees have taken office.  For instance, in a 2004 decision involving Brown University, the agency ruled that graduate student assistants at private universities are not employees and therefore ineligible for union membership.

In alphabetical order, the unions in the RNs Working Together coalition are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFT Healthcare, American Federation of Government Employees, Communications Workers of America, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees, International Union of Operating Engineers, Office Professional Employees International Union, United American Nurses, United Auto Workers, and the United Steelworkers.