Not only are National Labor Relations Board members sparring with each other, but the NLRB's general counsel is in a battle with the board's union workers.
In the posh Loews Hotel in Philadelphia, a large group of employment and labor lawyers crammed into a conference room to hear Ronald E. Meisberg, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, speak about his role at the Washington panel that oversees the relationship between unions and companies. You can read more about the conference in Saturday's Inquirer business section.
And on their way in, they encountered members of the National Labor Relations Board Union, who were leafletting in protest against their boss - Meisberg. The union represents 1,000 lawyers, examiners and support staff field offices, as well as support staff in NLRB headquarters and in Meisberg's office. In the Philadelphia NLRB office, 35 to 40 workers are represented by the union.
The union is peeved with Meisberg and has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against him with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which acts as a national labor relations board for federal employees.
In March, 2007, the FLRA approved union's 2005 petition to consolidate its four separate bargaining units into one.
Meisberg, who had previously served on National Labor Relations Board as a Republican appointee, opposed the idea of one bargaining unit, explaining to the assembled lawyers Thursday that the agency has both a prosecutorial function and judicial function and that workers in each function properly belong in separate units.
Meisberg's argument failed to persuade the FLRA. In June, he sent a memo to NLRB employees saying he would not bargain with them. But on Thursday, he said he will uphold current contracts until the issue makes its way through the courts.
On Monday. an administrative law judge ruled Meisberg's refusal to bargain was an unfair labor practice and recommended that the FLRA require Meisberg to bargain with the union. That would then clear the way for Meisberg to appeal the matter to federal court, prolonging the process. You can read the judge's decision. Download file
Meisberg's refusal to bargain angers union president Eric Brooks, who was among those leafletting Thursday. "I think it's egregious that the person who is in charge of enforcing federal labor law is willfully violating federal labor law himself."
