CWA President Bashes Senate’s “Nuclear” Compromise

As pointed out by our colleagues Scott Witlin and John Koenig in articles below, the effect on employers arising out of the Senate’s compromise will turn on who the new appointees to the NLRB are. We now know that both of the Democratic nominees are solid pro-Union selections – the former Associate General Counsel for the AFL-CIO and the former Chief Counsel to NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce. Yet, the prospect of restoring the Board to its full complement with a presumed pro-union majority wasn’t enough for Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Cohen was quoted by The Hill this week saying that the deal tossed current members and nominees Sharon Block and Richard Griffin Jr. “under the bus.”

“There is not one intellectual argument, either about Block and Griffin, why those nominations shouldn’t go forward. It’s just [Republicans] want their pound of flesh from working people in this country, and this is where they’re going to get it because they were able to convince four or five Democrats to go with them,” Cohen said. "Those Democrats will know we know who they are…” he added, calling their actions a “disgrace” done for “narrow political reasons, and that they will have to “answer to people who you told that you would stand by democratizing the U.S. Senate.”

The Hill’s coverage on Cohen’s remarks can be read here.

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