Please see an excerpt of Rep. John Kline's piece from today's Washington Examiner:
Across the country, Americans continue to express their frustration with business-as-usual in Washington where special interests secure backroom deals that run contrary to the national interest.
Voters expect their elected leaders to fight for a level playing field that enables all Americans to pursue economic opportunity and prosperity. Unfortunately, a recent decision by a board of unelected bureaucrats in the Obama administration makes it clear that some in Washington still don’t get the message.
Since 1934, the National Mediation Board (NMB) has provided federal oversight of the relationship between labor and management in the nation’s airline and railway industries – two industries critical to the strength of our economy.
The job of the NMB is to ensure the rights of workers and employers are protected fairly and equitably so these vital lines of commerce remain open. For more than 75 years, the policies overseen by the NMB were designed to reflect workers’ true preferences by respecting the will of the majority.Union elections were straightforward: Only when a majority of all workers voted in favor of a union was it recognized as the bargaining agent for all workers. However, it seems the bureaucratic activism of the current administration knows no limit: Last week the board, now governed by a majority of Obama appointees, overturned this long-standing rule.