US labor leaders say underfunding at federal agency has 'reached crisis stage'

[Omaha Steve]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/17/us-labor-agency-union-activity

Union officials fear that the overstretched NLRB won’t be able to handle the surge in union activity, giving corporations the upper hand

Steven Greenhouse Wed 17 Aug 2022 07.00 EDT

Labor leaders in the US are worried that the federal agency that oversees unionization efforts is approaching a “true crisis” as it struggles with a decade of underfunding and a huge surge in union activity.

Last year saw a 58% jump in the number of union elections as union drives spread at companies including Amazon, Apple, Starbucks and other companies. Some labor leaders say they are worried that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become so understaffed that it will have a hard time investigating the flood of allegations that Starbucks has violated America’s labor laws hundreds of times in its efforts to crush a historic unionization drive.

Union officials fear that the overstretched NLRB won’t be able to handle all these cases in a timely manner – including cases seeking to win reinstatement of fired pro-union baristas – and that as a result, Starbucks will get the upper hand in beating back the union campaign.

With the labor board’s budget frozen for many years, union leaders voice dismay that congressional Democrats did not increase the NLRB’s funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark climate, healthcare and tax package that Joe Biden signed on Tuesday.

FULL story at link at top.

[appalachiablue]

1. Thanks, a very important issue. K/R