Manufacturers sue NLRB over union poster rule

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to stop a new regulation by the board that would require employers to post notices informing their workers of their right to organize a union.

Filed Thursday in in the U.S. District Court in Washington, NAM’s lawsuit says the labor board is acting out of its jurisdiction and should suspend the rule. The legal action comes as the NLRB increasingly comes under more scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have been angered by several of the board’s decisions this year.

{mosads}In a statement, Jay Timmons, NAM’s president and CEO, said the rule is “just another example of the board’s aggressive overreach to insert itself into the day-to-day decisions of businesses — exerting powers it doesn’t have.”

Timmons said, “The growing list of burdensome actions from the NLRB is causing great uncertainty among manufacturers at a time when our economy is struggling to recover. We are committed to fighting this rule in order to rein in the NLRB. We also are encouraging Congress to act soon to stop this rogue agency.”

NAM and another business group, the National Federation of Independent Business, launched a radio ad campaign earlier this week targeting the labor board. 

The radio ads urge lawmakers to vote for legislation that would strip the NLRB of its legal authority to order a company to relocate its employment. That bill, which is expected to be voted on in the House soon, came in response to the labor board’s April 20 complaint against Boeing for allegedly retaliating against union workers by relocating a factory.

That complaint and another regulation proposed by the labor board that will speed up union elections have been heavily lobbied against by several trade associations, including NAM, this year.