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.

Marcus Hedger, illegally fired in 2010, will have to wait even longer to get his job back if the Senate fails to confirm President Obama’s bipartisan nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Call your senators toll free at 1-888-264-6154 and tell them to confirm the board nominations now.

President Obama has nominated five people to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Two are Republicans. All are waiting for confirmation by the Senate. Let your senators know these nominees should be confirmed so the NLRB can get back to work:  888-264-6154.

In 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a commonsense and evenhanded rule that said employers must post a notice in the workplace to inform workers of their rights. Simply put, the 11 x 17 poster should inform workers of their right to join a union and their right not to join a union.

Yesterday, a trio of Republican-appointed judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the NLRB rule violated the employers’ right of free speech. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the courts’ ruling “absurd.” 

We've all seen the charts. As union membership rates go down, so goes the middle class and people's ability to bargain for living wages and a voice on the job. 

David Madland and Karla Walter from the Center for American Progress (CAP) say, in Top 6 Policies to Help the Middle Class that Won’t Cost Taxpayers a Penny, that strengthening people's ability to organize unions and to bargain collectively will go a long way in rebuilding the middle class. 

House Republican leadership rammed through a bill (H.R. 1120) earlier today that would effectively put the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) out of business. 

The NLRB enforces rules established under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects the rights of workers to form unions, bargain collectively and have a voice on the job. 

Talk about team work. House and Senate Republicans have come together with a unique new strategy to attack workers’ rights and shut down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). And their corporate sponsors are loving it.

For a heart-breaking look at how the Republican-engineered dysfunction at the National Labor Relations Board is affecting working men and women, check out Dave Jamieson’s weekend piece in The Huffington Post.

Jamieson chronicles the nine-year ordeal of union coal miners at the Cannelton mine near Smithers, W.Va., who lost their jobs when Massey Energy (since purchased by another mining company after the notorious Upper Big Branch disaster) bought the mine.