So, to the people behind this proposal: you can have a funded and staffed NLRB which dutifully carries forth the intent of your bill, or you can pass a law that accomplishes nothing, with no one around to implement the changes you seek. You cannot have both.

So… fund the NLRB!

Where does the NLRB stand right now? It is shut down and inoperable, with no one enforcing labor law. Even when the agency reopens, we are operating under a hiring freeze and facing proposals to slash our budget.

This cannot be reconciled with the aims of yesterday’s hearing.

The most easy and impactful thing that any politician can do right now to protect workers’ labor rights is to advocate for increased hiring and funding for the NLRB. Any legislative proposals that aim to strengthen the law’s protections will require more personnel to do the job.

If parties are seriously seeking to “fix” labor law, any proposal must factor in that the agency tasked with enforcing the law needs the manpower and resources necessary to adequately protect workers.

Who will investigate charges? Gather evidence? Prosecute violations?

The proposed bill would impose a time limit in which unions and employers must reach a collective bargaining agreement. Alleged violations of these bargaining requirements would be investigated by the NLRB.

The same NLRB that is already dramatically understaffed and underfunded.

Our Union’s members are doing their best to secure justice for workers. But if Congress continues to tell us to do more with less, we will continue to lose staff to burnout and the crisis will deepen.

This cut must be reversed. The NLRB needs MORE funding, not less.

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Ironically, the Senate is now seeking data about staffing levels at the Agency. But you don’t need a data report to know that the NLRB is drastically under-staffed – Senators can simply ask any worker in their state that’s filed a case before the NLRB over the past several years.

$5 million may not seem like a lot, but after a decade of flat funding, the NLRB was on the verge of furloughing staff. It took almost a decade of fighting for the agency to receive even a modest increase in 2023. And the Senate now appears willing to gut this progress entirely.

If Senators really cared about the ongoing delay of justice for workers who have been the victims of unfair labor practices and other violations of federal labor law, they would not vote to cut the budget of the only agency with authority to remedy these wrongs. Full stop.

Link to Bloomberg’s reporting: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

As we warned, the NLRB is already deeply understaffed. We have no fat to trim. Any reductions would critically impair our ability to enforce the NLRA. Workers WILL suffer.

And by the way: neither DOGE nor OMB has any legal authority to order layoffs. That’s the NLRB’s decision.

What’s more, we’ve learned that DOGE has requested and gained access to NLRB employees’ personal email addresses. Why would DOGE need this if they are not considering layoffs?

This is a five-alarm red alert for anyone who cares about labor rights. WE ARE UNDER ATTACK.

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www.theguardian.com/business/202...

And things could get worse than delays. If DOGE were to order cuts at the NLRB on a geographic basis, say by closing an entire regional office, workers in that jurisdiction would be completely deprived of their rights under federal labor law. There is no other agency to turn to.

The NLRB has lost nearly 40 percent of its field staff since FY2014. During that decade of almost flat funding, our ability to enforce the law has been severely tested. The average time from the filing of a charge to the issuance of a complaint has increased from 108 days to 440!

It should go without saying, but this is comically inconsistent with the White House’s illegal return-to-work order that is being instituted on March 31, in violation of our Union’s contract with the Agency. Where exactly is DOGE proposing that Milwaukee agents work from?!