AFL-CIO Files International Complaint on Bush Labor Board’s Sweeping Anti-Worker Decisions

For Immediate Release
Contact: Alison Omens 202-637-5018

AFL-CIO Files International Complaint on Bush Labor Board’s
Sweeping Anti-Worker Decisions
ILO Complaint Argues “Sustained Assault on Workers’ Rights in the United States”


(Washington, Oct. 25)  Today, the AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association against the decisions issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the last several years. According to the complaint, the NLRB, now dominated by a Bush administration majority, has engaged in a systematic effort to deny workers’ rights in violation of international labor standards.

“Under Bush, America’s labor board has so failed our nation’s workers that we must now turn to the world’s international watchdogs to monitor and intervene,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.  “The Bush Labor Board is kryptonite for America’s workers.  There is no historic precedent for such aggressive efforts by the Board to curtail workers’ rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining.”  

“Faced with a rise in unlawful employer conduct, the Board has responded by shrinking the NLRA’s coverage, limiting the rights protected by the statute, strengthening management’s prerogative to discriminate, harass, and intimidate and steadfastly refusing to apply the few meaningful remedies available under the Act,” reads the complaint.  The Board’s decisions, according to the complaint, further highlight a retreat from the promises of U.S. labor law and a deepening crisis for America’s workers.  

The complaint highlights numerous NLRB cases over the course of several years, including a particularly egregious set of decisions issued by the Board in late September.  Many of these 61 decisions continue the erosion of workers’ rights begun in earlier years by the Bush Board.  

This is not the first time the AFL-CIO has filed a complaint over the denial of freedom of association against the Bush Administration’s NLRB.  Currently, there are two other cases pending before the ILO, which challenge the NLRB’s denial of organizing and collective bargaining rights to workers now classified as supervisors and to university teaching and research assistants.
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