The Runaway NLRB

I agree with this:

The NLRB has five seats (and four members serving; there’s a vacancy at the moment). The fact that such a tiny group of unaccountable political appointees can just wake up one fine morning, have some Pop-Tarts, and then decide to rewrite the nation’s union-election rules is terrifying. Such changes ought to require an act of Congress.

My own preference would be to dissolve the NLRB, repeal the Wagner Act and the Railways Labor Act, and stop forcing businesses to accept contracts that they do not wish to accept. (In what other field of life is a contract considered valid if one side does not wish to be a party to it?) Our labor “relations” are an exercise in extortion, and they probably cost American workers more in the form of forgone opportunities and lost investment than they win for them. The problem is that the fruits of that extortion are highly concentrated: among government workers and the 7 percent or so of private-sector workers in unions. Repealing the Wagner Act sounds radical, and it would not be easy, but it would be a very good thing for the country.

I guess that makes me an “extremist.”

[Update a couple minutes later]

NLRB rulemaking at the speed of light.

2 thoughts on “The Runaway NLRB”

  1. A Clinton staffer made an infamous comment about executive orders, “Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Cool!”

    Regulations are even worse. Tens of thousands of regulations are enacted by government agencies each year. Reportedly, they cost the economy over a trillion dollars each year in compliance costs. Congress and the White House are just for show. The agencies are the real governement – unelected and unaccountable to anyone.

Comments are closed.