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NLRB Nurse Supervisor Decision Harms Worker Rights - USW President Leo Gerard

For Immediate Release                                          October 3, 2006

Pittsburgh, PA (Oct. 3) – Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers (USW),  issued the following statement reacting to today’s decision by Bush Administration appointees of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that strips workers of their right to form a union by reclassifying them as ‘supervisors’ in name only.

“The USW and the AFL-CIO are deeply concerned with the decisions rendered today by the National Labor Relations Board on whether employees are to be considered ‘supervisors’ under the National Labor Relations Act, excluded from the benefits of unionizing and collective bargaining -- a decision which could affect the right of millions of workers in the U.S. to join unions.

“For over 70 years, the Board has construed this issue in a common sense manner to allow the largest number of employees to be able to avail themselves of the benefits of collective bargaining.

“Now the Bush Board, after a pro-employer decision in 2001 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Kentucky River, has handed down a series of decisions that give employers a convenient and easy-to-follow road map for how to cloak employees with the mere appearance of supervisory authority, though in reality these workers lack the type of authority most view as conferring upon them the title of supervisor.

“The collective bargaining rights of millions of workers, who up u