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Can I share my one grave concern about the PRO Act?
It might actually pass, and it might be a huge missed opportunity because it doesn't deal more forcefully and thoughtfully with bad SCOTUS labor decisions.
It might actually pass, and it might be a huge missed opportunity because it doesn't deal more forcefully and thoughtfully with bad SCOTUS labor decisions.
What broke labor law wasn't just Taft-Hartley and the employer assault on unions, it was tons and tons of patrician judges poking their nose on issues they didn't understand and overruling principles they didn't like. 2/
For chrissakes, they took away the right to strike within two years of the NLRA. They invented the arbitrary distinction between "mandatory" and "permissive" bargaining subjects, narrowing the scope of what we can bargain over. 3/
They decided that union activists can be fired for disloyalty for criticizing the boss' product. They decided that "professionals" need to be separated from their coworkers. They decided that college faculty are inherently managerial because they go to a bunch of dumb meetings. 4
SCOUS precedent can tie the NLRB up in knots and really fuck up some good campaigns trying to apply 20th century factory logic to the 21st century workplace.
A guy by the name of Richard Block had a great idea about this in the early 90's:
A guy by the name of Richard Block had a great idea about this in the early 90's:
Insert into the Act a sentence that the NLRB “is not bound by a previous decision of the board or any court.”
Quoting Block: It will provide employers and unions with the opportunity to argue that old doctrines should be changed or retained. . . . "
"Releasing the reconstituted NLRB from precedent would, over a period of several years, probably develop a system that is fair to all parties and takes into account the needs and interests of employers and unions."
I also think it would be a clear statement that when courts disobey Congress’s directive to stay out of the business of judging economic disputes the Congress believes the courts tend to get the facts and interpretation wrong.
