Following the ignominious ousting of unconstitutionally-appointed Operating Engineers’ General Counsel Richard Griffin from the NLRB this past July, Barack Obama re-nominated Giffin for the post of NLRB General Counsel a mere one day later.
Of course, it was probably only a coincidence that Griffin’s union gave Democrats $1 million in June.
Given his background, as well as his penchant to do his union buddies right, it shouldn’t come as a shock that Griffin is using his new role as role as prosecutor for the NLRB to go after a company that unions love to hate–WalMart.
The National Labor Relations Board Office of the General Counsel has investigated charges alleging that Walmart violated the rights of its employees as a result of activities surrounding employee protests. The Office of the General Counsel found merit in some of the charges and no merit in others. The Office of the General Counsel has authorized complaints on alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act. If the parties cannot reach settlements in these cases, complaints will issue.
Interestingly, the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) noted that the United Food & Commercial Workers (the union behind the WalMart protests) actually issued its press release before the NLRB released its press release.
According to the WFI’s blog:
We’ve long known that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is working to promote the interests of Big Labor every day. But rarely has the connection been so clear.
Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union announced an action by the NLRB…before the NLRB announced it.
The operative quote WFI points to in the UFCW release is this:
The National Labor Relations Board General Counsel is issuing a decision today to prosecute Walmart for its widespread violations of its workers’ rights. [Emphasis added.]
Of course, this too was probably just a coincidence.
Commenting on this, the WFI noted:
Of course virtually nothing surprises us when we see the hand in glove relationship between the Big Labor bosses and the NLRB, but this comes pretty close. When the unions themselves become the press agents of the agency, something has gone completely wrong at the Board that is supposed to serve as a watchdog on both employers and unions.
A hand in glove indeed.
Hardly a surprise. Get NSA to track phone calls and emails from and to NLRB General Counsel and AFL-CIO, Operating Engineers, etc. Similarly, track phone calls and emails of NLRB Chairman and Members.
Just one more thing…Congressman Issa, require GC and Members to report for each work day where they were physically located, for what reasons, whether their activities and related travel costs were paid by taxpayers or private parties.