Nurses, autoworkers, janitors, and all union-organized workers depend on one thing to maintain fair working conditions with their employers: the enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act. Recently, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down President Obama’s appointment of three members to the National Labor Relations Board while the US Senate was on spring break. While this could be just a Washington power grab towards the President or organized labor, or both, but the effect is workers will need to be even more vigilant about their rights in the workplace.
Workers need a staffed and effective NLRB to decide cases that involve employers violating the National labor Relations Act pertaining to working conditions, organizing efforts, and collective bargaining. If employer’s think no one’s minding the store, then workers could see a free-for-all match by employers toward unions.
With a backlog of cases stuck at the NLRB while this appointments issue runs its way through the US Supreme Court, which is where it’s headed, then workers need to stand together and stay organized. Special interest groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce have come out to argue against the appointments and embed them even further into the muck of the judicial process.
So how to fight back? Organize, mobilize, and stand in solidarity with each other to hold the employers accountable for their actions. Remember a legal silver bullet does not always exist.
Nurses need to speak as a single voice as they fight for staffing, patient safety standards, and working conditions that are good for them and good for their patients. Employers all over the country may try to push back against nurses and even separate and divide them from standing in solidarity, but nurses can take their collective stories to the press, to social media, and to lawmakers to show how conditions for themselves and their patients need to meet safety standards.