Leading Employer Coalition Asks President To Get His NLRB Under Control To Reduce Uncertainty In Hiring

Washington, D.C. // May 12, 2011 // Today, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which represents millions of employers who employ tens of millions of employees, released the following statement by Chairman Geoffrey Burr in response to this morning’s remarks by President Obama seeking employers to “step up” and hire more employees:

“Despite the President’s rhetoric downplaying the role of uncertainty in hiring decisions, employers face a uniquely unpredictable fiscal and regulatory situation. This is particularly problematic with respect to recent edits governing how to hire and interact with those would-be new employees, since the president’s own National Labor Relations Board is busy making it more difficult and costly for businesses to take on additional workers.

“The NLRB has recently taken fire for attempting to tell Boeing where it can create jobs and where it cannot, threatening the employment of thousands of South Carolina workers and deterring global investment in the United States and its workforce. The Board has also sought to erode the ability of employees to seek a federally supervised secret ballot election, limit the ability of employees and employers to discuss workplace issues, and grant unprecedented access to union organizers onto employers’ private property.”

Burr concluded, “If the president wants employers to step up, he needs to have his Labor Board step back.”