Union-Backed Nominee Blocked by Senate GOP

Wall Street Journal

Union-Backed Nominee Blocked in Senate

By MELANIE TROTTMAN And KRIS MAHER

The nomination of union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board fell short of the 60 votes needed to end a Republican filibuster Monday, with just 52 senators voting to support his appointment.

Mr. Becker's defeat was a sharp setback for the big labor unions that championed his nomination. He was strongly opposed by business interests and his prospects dimmed when Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson came out against him. Mr. Nelson said Monday that the nominee's past statements "strongly indicate" he would "pursue a personal agenda" at the NLRB, "rather than that of the administration." Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln also voted no.

Richard Trumka, president of labor federation AFL-CIO, called the outcome Washington politics-as-usual and said it was "reprehensible that a minority in the U.S. Senate has blocked an up-or-down vote" on Mr. Becker. Mr. Trumka said he would support President Barack Obama in making recess appointments of critical government posts "if that's what it takes to get around minority delay and obstruction."

Glenn Spencer, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's work-force freedom initiative, said the vote reflected opposition to Mr. Becker's "out of-the-mainstream" views about the rights of employers and opposition to a union-backed bill called the Employee Free Choice Act.

Mr. Spencer said a recess appointment of Mr. Becker "would send the wrong signal given the clear lack of support expressed by the Senate."

A White House spokesman declined to comment.

Mr. Becker served as counsel to the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. He was nominated by Mr. Obama last year for a seat on the NLRB, the independent quasi-judicial federal agency that supervises union elections and referees disputes between employers and employees.

The NLRB has functioned with just two members instead of the normal five for the past two years. The Supreme Court is expected to decide in June whether about 500 decisions the two-person board issued are valid.

The Obama administration has put forward two other nominees. One of them, Mark Pearce, a Democrat, also has a labor-side legal background but has generated less controversy than Mr. Becker. The other nominee, Brian Hayes, a Republican, has represented management clients.

Business groups opposed to Mr. Becker's nomination have cited passages from law-review articles from the mid-1990s. In one he wrote that "employers should be stripped of any legally cognizable interest in their employees' election of representatives." Mr. Becker also suggested, in a 1994 Chicago Law Review article, that the NLRB should protect repeated strikes over worker grievances.

Mr. Becker's nomination got linked to the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, or "card check" bill. The measure would make it easier for unions to organize by allowing them to bypass secret-ballot elections in favor of a process that requires workers merely to sign cards agreeing to join.

At a hearing earlier this month, Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson expressed concern that Mr. Becker's legal writings "indicated a belief that the NLRB has the power to make some of the dramatic changes in the card-check bill" even if it doesn't pass.

Mr. Becker suggested he now doesn't believe the board could take such steps.

Write to Melanie Trottman at melanie.trottman@wsj.com and Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com