This is How You Budget

As you may be aware, the National Labor Rellations Act (NRLA) does not allow for the the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to fine or penalize firms for labor law violations.

All they can do is to issue an order for rehiring union organizers who get fired with back pay.

Well, the new budget, which they will attempt to pass through reconciliation, thereby avoiding the filibuster, contains a provision allowing the NLRB to fine firms that violate labor law:

Senate Democrats’ budget reconciliation bill will seek to create monetary penalties for companies that violate workers’ union rights, according to congressional, union, and Biden administration officials briefed on the plans.

The proposal is part of a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint from Senate Democrats that aims to advance the Biden administration’s progressive policy goals, including union-friendly measures, without the need for Republican support.

The sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity to divulge private deliberations, told Bloomberg Law that monetary penalties from the National Labor Relations Board stand the best chance of various labor measures that could be included in the planned reconciliation bill, which must focus on budgetary matters.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said Wednesday that the party’s compromise for the blueprint will include the PRO Act, a comprehensive labor law overhaul bill. But he declined to provide details on what parts of the sweeping labor legislation would make it into a package that will eventually get submitted to the Senate parliamentarian for approval.

As an aside, F%$# the Senate parliamentarian.  Congress has ignored and fired them in the past, and they should do so now.

………

While getting the entire PRO Act into law remains the grand prize for Democrats and organized labor, supporters recognize that the Senate’s 60-vote threshold makes passage impossible. Therefore, unions and lawmakers have coalesced around the strategy of targeting monetary penalties as a shorter-term victory that stands a better chance at winning the parliamentarian’s approval because of its budgetary nature.

If enacted, the monetary penalties would give unions a major source of leverage in gaining a foothold at nonunion workplaces, allowing the government for the first time to fine employers for violating workers’ rights.

Under current law, if employers are found to have fired employees in retaliation for their union organizing activity, for instance, they must provide back wages in certain circumstances, or provide workers with a poster informing them of their rights. But there are no further financial penalties on the employer to deter future violations.

I still think that the filibuster, or as I like to call it, "Aaron Burr's mistake," should be nuked, but this is a decent move, both from a policy and a political perspective.

Now, I just have to wonder whether it will be Manchin or Sinema will try to sabotage this.

My money is on the Sinema being the turd in the punch bowl.