NLRB: A Rogue Agency?

Earlier this week, I posted about the recent Court of Appeals decision finding that Obama violated the Constitution when making “recess appointments” when the Senate was not in recess. Well, over at Breitbart, there is an article on the response from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). At base, the NLRB has decided to ignore the court ruling and plans to continue with business as usual. This has sparked some to call that the Board’s funding be cut until it recognizes the import of the court decision.

A cut is probably in order for other reasons. According to recent statistics, union membership is declining.

Total union membership continued to decline this past year to 11.3 percent of all full-time wage and salary earners, down from 11.8 percent of all earners in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The difference between membership levels for public and private employees was stark: 35.9 percent of public-sector employees were in unions, while only 6.6 percent of private-sector employees were union members, a report released Wednesday (January 23) said.

The numbers follow a trend of declining membership over the last 20 years. In 1983, just over 20 percent of workers were members of public-or-private-sector unions. The membership decline also mirrors the recent political defeats unions have suffered in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin.

That is good news. Maybe with a decline in union power we’ll start to see industry think about staying in the U.S.A.