This morning, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing to discuss “Recent Actions of the National Labor Relations Board.”  In response to requests for comment, NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce issued the following statement:

"The National Labor Relations Board takes very seriously its obligation to enforce the law as enacted by Congress in a fair and even-handed way. Since August of last year, the Board issued more than 400 decisions, finding for employer interests in some, labor union interests in others, and individual employee interests in still others. In its hearing today, the Committee chose to focus on three decisions issued in late August. Two of them reversed previous Board rulings that were themselves highly controversial when they issued. The third clarified a confusing standard, allowing a group of Certified Nursing Assistants at a nursing home in Alabama to exercise their choice on union representation through a secret ballot election. Finally, the Board issued a rule which requires employers under the jurisdiction of the NLRB to post a notice of employee rights under our law, including the right to refrain from union activity, available for free download from our website. To my mind, these actions represent pursuit of the mission that Congress gave this agency - to protect worker free choice, promote collective bargaining and preserve labor peace."