Senators Will Block Confirmation of NRL Board Appointments

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GOP to block labor nominees

A group of 19 Republican senators is vowing to defeat two of President Barack Obama’s nominations for the National Labor Relations Board after the panel sued Boeing, accusing the aerospace giant of retaliating against union workers.

In a letter sent to Obama, the senators said they would “vigorously oppose” and use all procedural tools to block the confirmations of the board’s Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon and board member Craig Becker, a former union attorney whom Obama granted a recess appointment last year.

The NLRB suit against Boeing is “an attack on millions of workers in 22 right-to-work states, as well as a government-led act of intimidation against American companies that should have the freedom to choose to build plants in right-to-work states,” states the letter, which was made public on Thursday. “If the NLRB prevails, it will only encourage companies to make their investments in foreign nations, moving jobs and economic growth overseas.”

The letter is the latest salvo in a national fight over so-called right-to-work states, which prohibit employers from requiring workers to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. Wisconsin’s efforts to restrict union rights for public employees set off weeks of protests by labor groups in Madison earlier this year.

On Wednesday, South Carolina GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, as well as Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), rolled out legislation that would bar the federal government from suing or denying contracts to states because of their right-to-work status.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who signed the letter, took to the Senate floor Thursday to blast the lawsuit NLRB filed against Boeing, saying it would cost billions of dollars and thousands of new jobs. The board filed suit in April after a union sued the aerospace manufacturer for opening a second assembly line for its 787s at a nonunion facility in South Carolina instead of union-friendly Washington state, where Boeing has facilities.

“Why attack a private company with a legal challenge that will cost an enormous amount of money to defend, disrupts business, undermines the efforts of states to increase jobs and promote economic recovery, but that will fail for its lack of merit? The answer is simple: The unions wanted it,” Hatch said. “This is just another chapter in the sorry relationship between unions, big government and the party of big government.”

In January, Obama nominated Solomon to become NLRB’s general counsel, but Solomon has not yet appeared for a Senate confirmation hearing or received a confirmation vote in the full Senate.

Becker’s nomination to become one of five members of NLRB’s board was rejected by the Senate in February 2010 over concerns about his work for Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. But Obama used a recess appointment to seat temporarily seat him a month later.

“The Senate has been unacceptably denied the ability to exercise its constitutional duty of advice and consent in regards to the NLRB,” the senators wrote in their letter to Obama “We urge you to withdraw both Mr. Solomon’s and Mr. Becker’s nominations to their respective positions immediately. If not, we will vigorously oppose both nominations, vote against cloture and use all procedural tools available to defeat their confirmation in the Senate.”

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