Murray: “Board Is Once Again Attempting To Give Big Corporations The Green Light To Shirk Their Responsibility To Bargain With Workers”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement today on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposal to rewrite the joint employer standard. The current standard requires all corporations with control over workers’ health, safety, hours, pay, or other working conditions to be at the bargaining table with workers. 

“After a botched attempt to undermine workers’ rights by grossly violating ethics rules, the Board is once again attempting to give big corporations the green light to shirk their responsibility to bargain with workers for fair pay, better hours, safer working conditions, and more. This rushed, irresponsible proposal undermines the Board’s own mission to encourage collective bargaining and protect workers’ right to come together in unions. I strongly urge the Board to abandon this harmful proposal and instead reaffirm workers’ right to negotiate with all the companies that have control over their jobs.”

Before the Republican chair of the NLRB retired in December, the Republican Board members rushed to overturn the current joint employer standard, announced in 2015. In February 2018, the Board was forced to vacate the decision after NLRB ethics officials determined Member William J. Emanuel should not have participated in the decision due to conflicts of interest. The Board is again unnecessarily rushing to change its standard while the standard itself is still the subject of an active case in a federal appeals court, which has yet to rule in the case.

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