NLRB Hobbles Along As Seats Remain Unfilled

[Earth Bound Misfit]

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In the fight between President Bush and Senate Democrats over government appointments, the Federal Election Commission is the agency that has been most obviously affected—but the National Labor Relations Board also is suffering.

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NLRB Chairman Robert Battista’s term ended in mid-December, while those of Peter Kirsanow and Dennis Walsh expired in January. Wilma Liebman and Peter Schaumber, who were appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents, respectively, remain on the board.

President Bush has renominated Battista and Walsh, who is a Democrat. He also wants to appoint Gerald Morales, an Arizona lawyer. Those nominations are stalled, along with nearly 200 others, as Bush negotiates with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, to break an impasse.

Democrats accuse Bush of running roughshod over the Senate’s constitutional role in approving nominations by appointing many officials during congressional recesses. Bush asserts that Senate Democrats are playing political games.

Meanwhile, the NLRB continues to function...The overall pace of work is sure to slow, and more difficult cases will be put off while the board awaits its full complement.

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Democrats assert that the NLRB doesn’t work, even at full capacity, with its recent Republican majority. A joint House-Senate hearing in December examined recent rulings that Democrats say undermine unions.

Democrats are particularly upset with Battista, who defended himself by citing increases in back-pay collections and elections conducted and a decrease in the case backlog during his five-year tenure. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called Battista’s renomination an example of the Bush administration’s “hostility to fairness and justice in the workplace.”

In a March 6 press conference, Reid indicated that no nominee was off limits for negotiations with the White House.

Full story: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/43/87.html