In several actions around the country Tuesday—including a rally outside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington, D.C.—workers and their allies will tell the U.S. Senate it’s time to confirm President Obama’s bipartisan package of five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Congress is due back to work July 8 and the nominees—three Democrats and two Republicans—must be confirmed before August, when the term of one of the current NLRB members ends and the board will be without a quorum.

Clarence Adams from Brooklyn, N.Y., was fired by Cablevision for asking for a fair contract. He explains here why a functioning National Labor Relations Board is important for America's working families.

This is how hope turns into despair. More than a year since they voted to form a union, Panera workers in Michigan are still waiting. The franchisee that owns the Panera Bread stores in the region refused to recognize the BCTGM as the official representative of the bakers and refused to meet to bargain a first contract. 

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that Panera broke the law by refusing to bargain, and ordered the company to bargain with the bakers.  But the company appealed that ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court, which has put the case on hold because of another ruling about President Obama’s three recess appointments to the NLRB.  So the workers are still waiting for justice.

Most people in Pennsylvania don’t even know what the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is. Well, why should they? Here’s why.

In January 2012, some 285 Brooklyn Cablevision workers voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and have since been in negotiations for a fair contract, with little success. In April, two National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional directors issued complaints against Brooklyn Cablevision for failure to bargain in good faith and for illegally firing 22 workers.
 

Now the cable giant has filed a suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit claiming the court’s recent ruling that President Barack Obama's recess appointments of three members to the NLRB are invalid should reach even deeper into the NLRB and invalidate decisions by the board’s regional offices. (The D.C. Circuit ruling is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.)

If the Senate Republican minority continues to use Senate rules to roadblock virtually every one of President Obama’s key nominees to vital government agencies, it’s time for Senate Democrats to use majority muscle to change the Senate’s rules, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen said today.

A New York Times editorial this weekend criticizes Republican obstructionism designed to stop the National Labor Relations Board from protecting workers' rights by blocking President Obama's appointments to the board.

On a more global scale, similar opposition to unions is contributing to a business climate that allows tragedies like the recent deaths of 1,100 factory workers in Bangladesh to happen. In The Washington Post, Lance Compa argues that a stronger labor movement in the countries that build the products sold by multinational corporations like Walmart, Apple and many others would go a long way to improving worker safety and working conditions.

The fight over President Obama’s five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is headed to the U.S. Senate floor after the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee voted today to send the five to the full Senate. Now the question is, will Senate Republicans filibuster?

Wilma Liebman who served 14 years on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—including chairwoman from 2009–2011—says, “Appointments to the NLRB have been a political battleground for decades.” But, in a column today in Politico, she says the current attack on the NLRB is the most vicious since the board was created in the 1930s.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been under “relentless political attack [and] many elected officials are actively trying to shut the NLRB down,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said this morning as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee (HELP) opened confirmation hearings on a package of nominees to the board.