Labor Department chaos hides an anti-worker agenda
Earlier this year, a Boston Trader Joe’s worker had their wrongful termination case dismissed by the National Labor Relations Board, with the board providing no other explanation than “lack of cooperation.” This, however, was just the reason given as part of the board’s recent policy of dismissing cases that fall short of their new standard, which requires those bringing cases to gather and present information that was previously gathered by a board investigator. The board explained this is part of a new phase of investigation meant to determine whether a case might be eligible for summary dismissal, at least under the new standard. Under the policy, the charging party — typically an employee or union alleging an unfair labor practice — is required to file a timeline of events related to their allegation, documentation of those events, like communications and phone records, and a list of witnesses they plan to bring and a summary of their testimony. All of this was previously collected and presented by a board investigator, but now workers must make their …
