Earlier this month, the House Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee passed its spending bill out of committee by voice vote. The bill funds the Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services and several other independent agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The spending bill is deemed one of the most contentious of the appropriations bills and is viewed as a policy statement on President Obama’s labor agenda by some policy analysts. The bill provides $153 billion in discretionary spending for FY16 and includes two key defunding provisions for labor rules. 

The first provision defunds the NLRB from implementing the recently finalized union election rule or ‘ambush’ rule. The union election rule fast tracks union elections by shortening the organizing election time frame from an average of between 45 to 60 days down to approximately 13. In March of this year, the House and Senate passed a resolution of disapproval on the ambush elections rule sending the measure to President Obama’s desk which he immediately vetoed. On May 5, the Senate voted to table or halt any further legislative action to override President Obama’s veto. NRMCA is concerned that these ambush elections will overly burden the ready mixed concrete small business owner who may lack the legal resources to prepare for these elections and also the time to educate the workforce of union claims. The proposed rule was finalized on April 14, 2015.

The second provision included in the spending bill will prohibit the NLRB from amending or redefining the current joint employer standard. The NLRB is attempting to reform the 30 year old joint employer standard and has issued a public notice on filing amicus briefs in the Browning Ferris Industries case. If the NLRB uses a new joint employer standard it could have a dramatic impact on what it means to be an employer and an employee. Browning-Ferris involves a subcontractor/contractor relationship at a recycling facility. A new joint employer standard could mean that many contracting companies could find themselves designated as joint employers of their sub-contractors' employees.

NRMCA along with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) is working to secure inclusion of amendments on mircro-unions and persuaders issues. The House Committee on Appropriations is scheduled to mark up the Labor-HHS spending on Wednesday, June 24.

For more information, contact Kerri Leininger at kleininger@nrmca.org.