United States: Labour board limits political strikes

An overlooked order by the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) lead lawyer this summer dealt a serious blow to the rights of US workers to protest government policies. On May Day, 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers walked off their jobs to protest restrictive immigration legislation. Some were fired, and brought complaints to the board. Ronald Meisburg, the NLRB general counsel, responded by posting a directive on “political advocacy” in July that enables bosses to immediately fire employees who participate in work stoppages of a political nature. The directive, as yet apparently unnoticed by both unions and labour lawyers, cannot be appealed. Traditionally, workers around the world have used two kinds of walkouts to achieve their goals, economic strikes over workplace issues and political strikes directed... [read full story]