For a heart-breaking look at how the Republican-engineered dysfunction at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) 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. The NLRB ruled last year that 85 miners were due back pay and their jobs back, Jamieson reports, because Massey had failed to hire them due to their connection with the Mine Workers (UMWA). But nearly a decade after they lost their jobs, they’re still waiting while Senate politics and a hostile court ruling hamstring the NLRB.

As Dwight Siemiaczko, a 20-year miner at Cannelton, said: "It's ruined me, plain and simple."

Read the full report here.