Tom Coburn's Office Now Has More Workers Than The Agency Overseeing Workers' Rights
WASHINGTON -- The federal agency that enforces labor law on companies and unions has been almost entirely shuttered since the government shutdown began, delaying union elections and stalling the investigation of unfair labor practices.
The National Labor Relations Board was nearly derailed earlier this year due to fights in Congress and the courts over President Obama's recess appointments to the board. Although the agency survived that political spat intact, it isn't faring so well during the shutdown. Out of more than 1,600 employees, the agency planned to furlough all but 11 of them in the case of government closure, leaving less than 1 percent of its workforce as "excepted" shutdown personnel, according to the agency's contingency plan.
That would mean the federal agency is working with fewer employees nationwide than the individual D.C. offices of certain senators, many of whom have deemed their entire staffs excepted personnel during the shutdown. Ten senators -- seven Republicans, including Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and three Democrats -- haven't furloughed any staffers at all, according to a HuffPost count.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/government-shutdown-nlrb_n_4066073.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037