The Board is wrong to support corporate interests by arguing that the California taxpayers should be required to subsidize employers’ anti-worker campaigns with taxpayer dollars. The Board filed its brief before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers the case. The brief supports a challenge to California law by Big Business and the Bush administration and is an affront to a state’s right to enact laws, like the Cedillo bill, that direct the use of taxpayer money.
The Cedillo law, which mandates accountability for spending state dollars and state neutrality in worker organizing campaigns, was a major step forward for California taxpayers. It prohibits employers from using taxpayer dollars to pay for employer-run campaigns to influence workers in their efforts to form or join a union. The law makes sure the billions of dollars that flow to private employers each year through California grants and subsidies are used only for the purposes intended—public services and programs. The California law is directed at fiscal responsibility—it protects taxpayer dollars from unintended uses.
Today, the NLRB’s brief argues in support of employers who believe they have the right to squander taxpayer money on expensive consultants and other costly tactics designed to block workers' free choice to join a union. California's law simply protects taxpayers by making clear such uses of state funds—pro-union or anti-union—are unauthorized.
Contact: Lane Windham (202) 637-5018
