NLRB Rules in Favor of Saigon Deliverymen, Blogger Surprised

NYTimes: For nearly a year, devotees of Vietnamese food have encountered deliverymen picketing in front of two of Manhattan’s most highly rated Asian restaurants: the Saigon Grills on the Upper West Side and in Greenwich Village. The picket lines could soon come down, because a judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that the owner of the restaurants illegally fired 28 deliverymen last March and should reinstate them. Read more -

I am happy to see that the Board ruled in favor of the deliverymen though it would be irresponsible if it ruled otherwise given the evidence. I am also surprised.

The NLRB under the later Bush has been particularly biased against pro-union workers. For example, last year the Board ruled that if employers voluntarily recognize a union when a majority of the employees sign authorization cards (as opposed to voting for the union through an NLRB election), the employer must notify the employees that they have 45 days to petition for a decertification of the union. While it takes 50 percent of workers in a unit to vote in a union, it only takes 30 percent of those employees to decertify the union. The ruling takes much of the power out of running card check elections. Many unions prefer card check over traditional Board elections because workers can sign authorization cards any place or time. Workers voting through Board elections are much more susceptible to employer intimidation.
This recent case is just one example of the dozens of precedents against workers that the Board has set over the past several years.

A side note: I am currently in the Central Valley helping workers organize using card check authorization. Fortunately the county here, which happens to be the employer of record for this group of workers, follows a resolution allowing its employees to form unions via card check authorization. Thanks voters!