Bruck Corkum, an RN at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Ore., speaks out after the NLRB ruling. Photo by Mindy Bartlett.

Lawmakers are acting to reverse a decision that would cost millions of workers their union rights. On March 22, the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act was introduced. The bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to clarify the difference between supervisors and employees. Under current law, supervisors cannot organize a union or collectively bargain.

AFT president Edward J. McElroy applauded the measure. "This bill will overturn the ill-advised National Labor Relations Board decision stripping thousands of nurses of their right to a union by classifying them as supervisors," he said. "It will ultimately help avoid generating bedlam in our workplaces and unsafe conditions for patients. We're happy to see Congress moving so quickly to fix this mistake." McElroy's statement on legislation is available here.

The measure is being co-sponsored by Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). It was introduced in the House by Reps. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and George Miller (D-Calif.).

In October 2006, the NLRB issued a broad interpretation of the term supervisor, which will lead to more employees being deemed supervisors. The ruling on a group of cases, known as Kentucky River, says employers can label workers as supervisors if they assign another employee to a particular location, to work at a certain time or to perform a significant task. They also may be called supervisors if they're held accountable for the tasks they assign.

The main case, Oakwood Healthcare Inc., was decided on a 3-2 vote. It says permanent "charge" nurses are supervisors under the NLRA, while rotating charge nurses may not be. In the other two cases, Croft Metals Inc. and Golden Crest Healthcare Center, the board said the nurses did not exercise supervisory authority.

"The RESPECT Act will right a wrong done to millions of Americans when the Bush-dominated labor board stripped away their right to bargain for better wages and benefits," AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said.

The bill would amend the definition of supervisor under the NLRA by deleting the terms "assign" and "responsibly to direct" since these are the terms the labor board used to justify its rulings. The bill also would require that, for a worker to be classified as a supervisor, that person would have to spend the majority of their day in a supervisory capacity.

According to the AFL-CIO, this legislation could help break a procedural logjam that is denying countless workers the right to join a union. Currently, the NLRB is holding up dozens of cases that address the definition of supervisor, and 60 of those involve union elections. They have all been sent back to the various regional boards. In some of the cases, workers who voted several years ago to form a union still are waiting for their ballots to be counted.

"We welcome this legislation. It will help in the fight against the ongoing attack by the Bush Administration to strip the rights of union workers, particularly healthcare workers," said HPAE president and AFT vice president Ann Twomey. "Union members have to stand up to these attacks. We can't wait for a new law to be passed. We have to stick together and voice our objections and support for each other."

Members of New Jersey's Health Professionals and Allied Employees and AFT-Connecticut lobbied aggressively to get the bills introduced.

The AFT is asking members to go to the union's online legislative action center to send a letter to their representative urging them to co-sponsor this new legislation. [Adrienne Coles/AFL-CIO]

March 26, 2007