Did the NLRB Just Make it easier to De-Unionize Raytheon?
A decision this week by the National Labor Relations Board could make it much easier for groups trying to eliminate unions to get a foothold in large defense manufactures like Raytheon, which have thwarted de-organization efforts by the Ousties group at WWW.IAM933.NET for years.Since the employer has the burden of showing that a bargaining unit is too small and that a larger group already shares the “community of interests” labor laws require, it removes much of the discretion the NLRB had to reject small bargaining units from breaking off from the larger union and makes it harder for employers to argue against de-unionizing subgroups of the work force.
The decision represents the lack of focus of Democratic appointees who took charge at the board after the President’s recess appointments were rejected. The chairman Mark Gaston Pierce wrote his opinion and he was joined by Nancy Schiffer, a former AFL-CIO assistant general counsel, and Kent Y. Hirozawa. They intended on helping the effort to unionize labor groups within larger companies like Wal-Mart one classification at a time, but failed to recognize this legal loophole permits this to work both ways.
Testers and Metrology-Calibration Technicians at Raytheon have been stifled from removing themselves from representation by the IAMAW Local Lodge No. 933 in the past. This new development may lead to a new opportunity to liberate ourselves from past strangleholds.
