Labor

Policy Priorities for 2012

• Oppose initiatives that attempt to regulate labor policy through the federal procurement process, for example, by blacklisting employers or ranking federal contractors based on labor policies.
• Aggressively oppose initiatives that would upset the balance of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), including union-backed proposals to rewrite National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Labor Department regulations making it easier for unions to organize employees and restricting employer free speech rights.
• Scrutinize nominees for the NLRB’s general counsel and board vacancies.
• Oppose efforts to revoke or rewrite favorable Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulatory changes made during the Bush administration.
• Oppose efforts to expand civil rights laws by increasing the amount of punitive and compensatory damages available, the potential for frivolous litigation, and unjustified administrative burdens.
• Protect the use of binding arbitration in employment.
• Oppose efforts to mandate paid sick leave.
• Advocate for pro-employer provisions in priority international labor and employment policy proposals.
• Oppose any attempt to revive an OSHA ergonomics regulation, including any effort to include an ergonomics component in a regulation mandating safety and health programs.
• Oppose attempts to mandate OSHA-designed safety and health programs.
• Oppose record-keeping regulations giving employees greater opportunity to sue employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
• Support appropriate financial disclosure regulation of labor unions.
• Support aggressive congressional oversight of Department of Labor activities, including OSHA rulemakings, enforcement policies, and record-keeping investigations.
• Support appropriate use of the appropriations process to rein in inappropriate regulation.
• Oppose OSHA attempt to implement new interpretation of feasible engineering and administrative controls under the noise reduction standard.
• Support reasonable efforts to reform the regulatory process so that agencies are required to show that their regulations are the most cost effective, data- and science-driven solutions and increase the level of legal scrutiny when regulations are challenged in court.
• Support reasonable changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, including allowing small businesses to recover their attorneys’ fees when they are successful in defending themselves against a citation.

Workforce Freedom Initiative

• Oppose inappropriate nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, National Mediation Board, Department of Labor, and other regulatory bodies.
• Initiate, foster, and support positive or corrective state labor law reforms to foster economic growth and job creation, lessen the regulatory burden on employers, and correct the special interest allowances and loopholes enjoyed by labor unions.
• Oppose regulations that would harm employers and prevent them from growing and creating new jobs. 
• Raise awareness of threats and burdens on employers in the form of restrictive labor regulations and/or adverse administrative case decisions through grassroots activities.
• Guard against union excesses and abuses of employers, workers, and others through research and publication of studies or placement of information through the national media.

Return to the index of priorities