NLRB union wants to talk with NLRB leaders

NLRB union wants to talk with NLRB leaders  

The union representing NLRB employees asked to meet with the agency’s general counsel and chairman this week over cost-cutting measures.

The request follows the passage of the omnibus bill, which retained funding for the agency at the same level as under the previous year’s continuing resolution. NLRB Professional Association President Karen Cook said cost-saving measures such as cutting the agency’s health unit and reorganizing regional offices can no longer be justified under the current funding.

“You have stated that each of these proposals was predicated on imminent budget cuts to the agency,” Cook wrote in a letter sent Friday. “Now, those cuts have not come to pass.”

The omnibus bill rejected a 9 percent cut to agency funding laid out in the White House budget in February. Robb invited Cook to meet with him last Tuesday about proposed changes to field operations and case processing after the union sent a letter on March 15 criticizing him for providing “multiple, inconsistent justifications” for the changes.

Cook said withdrawing the proposals would “restore some of the faith, unity, and sense of mission” in career employees at the NLRB.

“In all my years at the agency, I have not witnessed a time when the public servants who work here felt more disillusioned and more anxious about the work that they do and the way they are valued,” she wrote.