Bargaining rights that temporary workers had previously won
during the Clinton era have been taken away, as they are no longer
able to join with permanent workers to negotiate for job benefits.
The change is a result of the decision announced last week in the
Oakwood Care Center and N&W Agency, Inc. case.
Though the decision will not affect UCLA staff members, the 2.8
million employees who work for temp agencies will be affected
firsthand. The number of temporary workers has increased by over
760,000 over the past decade, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
The National Labor Relations Board, in a 3-2 decision,
overturned the decision made in the M.B. Sturgis case in 2000.
The board now has a majority of members appointed by President
Bush, which accounted for the majority of votes.
“We find that the new approach adopted in Sturgis, however
well-intentioned, was misguided both as a matter of statutory
interpretation and sound national labor policy,” said the
board in a Nov. 26 press release.
The other two board members, who were appointed by President
Clinton, dissented.
Oakwood will only affect private labor unions, and will not
affect any UCLA employees.
Most staff members belong to the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees, a public union.
“I think the decision made by the NLRB is horrible for
working people,” said Brian Rudiger, an organizer for
AFSCME.
“This is an example of the Bush administration taking the
side of big business over interests of workers, which is by and
large saying you have to be in separate bargaining units. It is
another management tactic to divide people,” he said.
“We are going to fight alongside other private sector unions
to reverse that decision and to get a new president in four years
and new appointees to uphold rights of workers.”
Over this past year there have been many decisions made with a
3-2 ruling, with Bush’s appointees voting in favor of
overturning already existing precedents.
In July, the board voted that graduate student assistants are
not employees of their university, which overturned a decision made
in 2000 in the New York University case, which stated that they
were.
“After carefully analyzing these issues, we have come to
the conclusion that the board’s pre-NYU principle of
regarding graduate student assistants as nonemployees was sound and
well-reasoned,” the board said in a July press release.
“It is clear to us that graduate student assistants … are
primarily students and have primarily an educational, not economic,
relationship with their university.”
Private universities, not public universities, are affected by
the board’s decision.
The United Automobile Workers, which represents teaching
assistants at UCLA, is not affected by the decision. They did,
however, voice their disapproval of it.
“We think the labor board should be acting to expand the
rights of workers to bargain collectively, not restrict
them,” said Roger Kerson, the assistant director of the
union.
The teaching assistants at private universities who are affected
also did not agree with the board’s ruling.
“(It) spurred a lot of graduate student organizing across
the country. It may not be such a factor at UCLA because it is a
public institution,” said Katherine Stone, a professor at the
UCLA Law School.
“All these decisions just apply to private sectors,”
she added.
Though the board’s ruling does not affect UCLA, many
already foresee the outcome.
“These decisions, especially the Oakwood Care one, are
going to be extremely detrimental to all employees. It deprives all
temporary employees from being part of bargaining units, and
weakens bargaining power of permanent employees,” Stone said,
“The Oakwood Care one will have very far-reaching
consequences; there are many temporary employees out
there.”