Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will introduce legislation to stop a controversial National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that could allow unions to form smaller bargaining units.
Graham, appearing Wednesday on a conference call organized by business groups, said he would introduce an NLRB amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill when the Senate Appropriations Committee marks it up on Thursday. The measure would ban the use of federal funds to implement an August 2011 NLRB ruling, known as Specialty Healthcare, that critics argue allows for the creation of “micro-unions.”
Graham said he wants to block the NLRB ruling because it has set a precedent where subsets of workers at a worksite can form a union.
“The reason I’m involved is because businesspeople from over the country have indicated to me that this ruling is basically creating chaos in the private sector,” Graham said. “The NLRB is becoming the Grim Reaper of job creation.”
The South Carolina senator cited an NLRB complaint against Boeing for allegedly punishing union workers, which has since been dismissed, and an NLRB rule that would speed up union elections, which has been blocked by federal courts.
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