Rather than carryover National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominee and current AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union lawyer Craig Becker until next year like most of president Obama’s nominees, the U.S. Senate sent a message back to the President about his nominations. While not a severed horse head in his bed … it is like the canary in the coal-mine.
Right after the Becker nomination, The National Right to Work Committee posted this President Obama Personnel Alert video regarding Becker (link here) along with the Committee’s Becker Alert report (link here).
[youtube 8ia-l1RASG8 nolink]
The report highlights the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Founder Wade Rathke’s ringing endorsement of Obama’s Becker nomination. Rathke wrote, “Here’s a big win no matter how you shake and bake it: Craig Becker being nominated for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)!”
Rathke went on to reveal Becker’s involvement in the creation of the “non-employee state employees” known as home healthcare workers. California and other states call home healthcare workers “employees” for collective bargaining purposes (re: forced dues paying purposes) and excluded these “employees” from all benefits of state employees like retirement, healthcare, vacation time, sick leave, set work rules, etc…
Rathke emphasized his joy in Becker’s manipulation of labor laws, “For my money Craig [Becker]’s signal contribution has been his work in crafting and executing the legal strategies which have allowed the …effective organization of informal workers — home health and home day care — has been the great, exceptional success story within the American labor movement for our generation, leading to the [forced dues] of perhaps a half-million such workers in unions like SEIU, AFSCME, CWA, and the AFT.”
According to Rathke, Becker is “the key lawyer from the beginning in the early 1980’s who was able to piece together the arguments and representation that allowed those of us involved in trying to organize home health care workers in Illinois, Massachusetts, and elsewhere … [Becker’s] role was often behind the scenes devising the strategy with the organizer and lawyers, writing the briefs for others to file, and putting all of the pieces together, but he was the go-to-guy on all of this.”
Rathke concludes, “I can remember Keith Kelleher negotiating the subsidy for SEIU Local 880 in Chicago and always making sure that there was the money for the organizers, but that SEIU was also still willing to allow access to Craig …Thanks for a solid [sic], President Obama!”
The President may resubmit Becker to the Senate, appoint him as a recess appointment, or simply nominate someone else for the NLRB post. No doubt the actions of concerned Americans across the country have gotten the Senate thinking about this nomination.
Thanks to the outrage of many across America, Becker is not on the NLRB – yet. But, do not let your guard down. Becker may return, and as BigGovernment and others continue to highlight, this Administration is already loaded with many other forced-unionism radicals like Becker.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.