The Senate Struggles To Overturn Obama’s Big Labor Veto

05.05.2015 | Surge Wire |

Republican leaders in the Senate have delayed a vote Monday geared at overturning a veto which critics claim unfairly benefits unions.

In March, Senate and House Republicans voted on a resolution to overturn a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule which drastically shortened the length of time in which a union certification election must be held. Older legislation gave workers 38 days to vote, but as of December, they’ve had as few as 11 days.

President Barack Obama, however, was quick to veto the March resolution.

The office of Sen. Alexander Lamar, who introduced the resolution to override the veto, confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation that the vote was delayed from Monday to possibly Tuesday. No further reason for the delay was given. To override the veto, both the House and Senate will have to get a two-thirds vote, which doesn’t happen often.

“This resolution seeks to defend legitimate debate and expression regarding workers’ freedom of association, specifically debate about whether workers want to pay union dues and relinquish their freedom of expression in favor of a union’s monopoly on bargaining,” Aloysius Hogan, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told TheDCNF.

Hogan has testified three times against the rule before the members of the NLRB.

Opponents, who dubbed the decision the “Ambush Election” rule, have argued the veto is a clear sign of bias in favor of organized labor because the labor board rule deprive employers of their right to explain the impacts of unionizing to their employees.

“The ill-conceived National Labor Relations Board rule foists an unfair ‘Vote now; understand later’ procedure on workers,” Hogan continued. “In this digital age, we should be safeguarding workers’ privacy, not wrenching private information from workers against their will.”

Labor board officials have defended the new rule by noting it will help streamline the process for resolving representation disputes.

“I am heartened that the Board has chosen to enact amendments that will modernize the representation case process and fulfill the promise of the National Labor Relations Act,” NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce said in a statement. “Simplifying and streamlining the process will result in improvements for all parties. With these changes, the Board strives to ensure that its representation process remains a model of fairness and efficiency for all.”

The rule was approved by board members Pearce, Kent Hirozawa and Nancy Schiffer with Philip Miscimarra and Harry Johnson III dissenting.

Follow Connor on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.