NLRB Proposes Employer Mandate To Alert Employees to Union Rights

National Labor Relations Board Rule Will Require Businesses to Alert Workers to Union Rights

In a move designed to help boost unions, the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday proposed a new rule requiring private-sector employers to post notices telling workers about their right to unionize.

The Proposed Rule is sure to please Unions that are struggling to maintain membership, but will surely result in objections from businesses. Under the rule, businesses would be mandated to notify their employees about their union rights by posting a Department of Labor Appoved Poster regardless of whether a union already exists in the workplace.

Employees would have to be notified about their rights to form or join a union and to bargain collectively with their company for the purposes of improving pay and working conditions.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2010 and members of the public can submit comments on the proposal for 60 days, until February 22, 2011.

Under the NPRM, employers would face various sanctions for failing to post the notice, including:

• Unfair Labor practice charges
• Time limits for filing other unfair labor practice charges against the employer extended
• The NLRB utilizing the failure to post the notice as evidence of unlawful motive in other unfair labor practice cases To View The DOL Poster, Click Here
  The NLRB, in explaining the idea, wrote in the proposed rule that it was concerned many employees are "unaware" of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Submit Your Comments To The NLRB On The Proposed Rule Here  

The new rule could take effect in as soon as 60 days

View Proposed Rule Here

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Proposed Regulations Published For Independendent Contractors

The head of New Jersey's workers' compensation division will soon begin issuing stop-work orders against contractors for misrepresenting employee headcounts under a bill A3569.

Proposed Regulations for A3569 were published in the New Jersey Register on November 1st 2010. The bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Joseph V. Egan (D-New Brunswick), who is deputy majority leader and chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) and signed into law by former Gov. Jon Corzine.

The change in the law will empower the Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation to issue a stop-work order against contractors that under count their employees or misclassify an employees status as an independent contractor, in order to avoid workers' compensation premiums. The law will apply even if the employers statements and or actions were made in error.
Any stop-work orders issued by the director would affect All Locations And Job Sites For The Contractor, and would be issued no later than three days after the violations were found. Violations of the Act is an indictable Crime of the 4th Degree felony offense. Read More

Read “Construction Industry Independent Contractor Act.” Here

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Construction Employment Up In 13 States

Thirteen states showed year-over-year growth in construction employment, according to data released by the Labor Department.

"It is encouraging that the number of states adding jobs year-over-year was higher in November than at any time since February 2008," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. He added that the gains were "as spotty as they are tenuous." California, New Jersey and New York were among those that posted increases.

Simonson noted, for example, that California had the largest monthly increase in construction employment – adding 7,800 jobs – but also the largest 12-month drop – 36,900 jobs, or 6.4 percent. New Jersey and New York had the next-highest number of construction job gains in November with 4,500. New Jersey also led the nation in monthly percentage gains (3.7 percent), followed by Vermont (3.4 percent, 400 jobs) and Maine (2.5 percent, 600 jobs).

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New Census Report Expected To Complicate Obama's 2012 Relection Bid

The 2010 census report coming out Tuesday will include lots of good political news for Republicans and grim data for Democrats hoping to re-elect President Barack Obama and rebound from last month's devastating elections.

The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its once-a-decade report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the U.S. must reapportion the 435 House districts to make them roughly equal in population, based on the latest census figures.

The biggest gainer will be Texas, a Republican-dominated state expected to gain up to four new House seats, for a total of 36. The chief losers -- New York and Ohio, each projected by nongovernment analysts to lose two seats -- were carried by Obama in 2008 and are typical of states in the Northeast and Midwest that are declining in political influence.
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The Aura Has Faded, Now Its Either Govern Or Fail.

Now that his aura is faded in the eyes of most Americans, Obama has successfully isolated himself from just about every group that matters in American political circles. How much worse can it get? The fact is many Democrats now consider the Adminstration an inattentive and hapless political operation. Democratic lobbyists feel slighted by his holier-than-thou take on their profession. His own Cabinet, with few exceptions, has been marginalized.

His relations with business leaders could hardly be worse. CEOs friendly with the president walk away feeling he’s indifferent at best to their concerns. Add in his icy relations with Republicans, the media and, most important, most voters, and it’s easy to understand why his own staff leaked word that it wants Obama to shake up his staff and change his political approach.

Obama has failed to engage the customs and institutions of Washington, leaving him estranged from the capital’s permanent power structure. “This guy swept to power on a wave of adulation, and he learned the wrong lessons from that,” said a Democratic official who deals frequently with the White House. “He’s more of a movement leader than a politician. He needs someone to kick his ass on things large and small and teach him to be a politician.”.............Good Luck With That!  Read More

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