Ronald Reagan reaches out from his grave, ties up NLRB (young right-wing lawyers back in the 1980s)

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/15556/

Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 05/08/09 14:53

The “Gipper” apparently knew what he was doing when he stacked the federal courts with young right-wing lawyers back in the 1980s. The now old right-wing judges are still on their benches and are busy, these days, doing whatever they can to slow the advance of the labor and progressive movements.

The National Labor Relations Board has put a freeze on consideration of all contested cases because of a recent ruling by a right-wing federal judge who was one of the many appointed by President Ronald Reagan..

Judge David Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 1 in favor of a company that challenged a board ruling that it had violated numerous labor laws. Sentelle, appointed to the bench in 1987 by Ronald Reagan, has a long history of making anti-worker and even unethical decisions.

To understand how he was able to throw a wrench into the entire NLRB operation and endanger numerous efforts by workers fighting for rights on the job, it is helpful to review a bit of history.

The five-member NLRB has, since Dec. 31, 2007, had only two sitting members, Democrat Wilma Liebman and Republican Peter Schaumber, and three vacancies. Before the last two left the board at the end of 2007, the then group of four decided to delegate NLRB’s authority to a panel of three. Even if the third member was a phantom, in cases where Liebman and Schaumber agreed on a solution there would be a quorum of two. Since then, the two have agreed upon and decided 300 cases, all 2-0.

Appellate Judge Joel Flaum in Chicago said the 2-0 rulings are legal when he upheld the Liebman-Schaumber ruling that New Process Steel, an Indiana steel maker, violated labor law by not accepting a signed contract with the Machinists.

FULL story at link.