The AFL-CIO’s Department for Professional Employees brought together more than 70 union organizers, lawyers and leaders in February to discuss the impact of the recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board on the definition of “supervisor.”

The daylong conference gave participants a chance to review, analyze and brainstorm about three crucial NLRB decisions, Oakwood Healthcare, Golden Crest Healthcare and Croft Metals, collectively known as the Kentucky River cases. Last October, the NLRB voted along party lines to strip longtime federal labor law protections of workers’ freedom to form unions, and opened the door for employers to take away union protection for as many as 8 million workers in nearly every profession. Under federal law, supervisors are not protected against retaliation for forming unions. Ross Eisenbrey, vice president and policy director of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), discussed research showing the professions that would be hardest hit by the NLRB decisions. At the top of the list: registered nurses. An estimated 843,000 nurses could lose the right to choose whether to join a union and have a voice in the care of their patients. The decisions could also affect airline pilots, computer systems analysts and many others.

Eisenbrey said these decisions are part of an “extraordinary campaign” to decimate the union movement. “They targeted workers with the most knowledge and expertise. Other workers look up to them. This really is an insidious thing they are doing to the rights of workers,” said Eisenbrey.

AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney quoted the dissenters from the NLRB decision, who warned the majority decision could “create a new class of workers ... who have neither the genuine prerogatives of management, nor the statutory rights of ordinary employees.”

Phil Kugler, the national AFT’s director of organization and field services, noted that before the Bush administration public sector unions faced an atmosphere that was “relatively benign” in comparison with the private sector. “Not any more. Now even public sector employers, following the Bush administration’s example, threaten public sector workers if they seek to organize or bargain,” he said.

Jean Lucas, a registered nurse and a former president of Health Professionals and Allied Employees Local 5118/AFT, underscored the important role unions play in allowing nurses to function effectively as patient advocates. Winning strong language to protect the integrity of 10 local unions in New Jersey, including hers, against the anticipated NLRB decisions was a key strike issue for the nurses.

Participants discussed several strategies and proposed legislative approaches to deal with the decisions, including a push for more voluntary recognitions in which employers agree to recognize unions if a majority of workers sign authorization cards, as well as calling on Congress to act to reverse the NLRB rulings.