SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mike Lee wants to take away the power of the National Labor Relations Board to prosecute and adjudicate disputes.
Lee, R-Utah, along with several other conservative Republicans, reintroduced a bill to transfer the power to hear labor disputes to the federal courts. The labor relations board, an independent federal agency comprised of five political appointees, could still conduct investigations, but not be allowed to prosecute them under the Protecting American Jobs Act.
“For far too long the NLRB has acted as judge, jury and executioner for labor disputes in this country,” Lee said. “The havoc they have wrought by upsetting decades of established labor law has cost countless jobs. This commonsense legislation would finally restore fairness and accountability to our nation’s labor laws.”
The board was established to carry out the National Labor Relations Act, but it has ignored traditional standards of due process, operated under lengthy and bureaucratic procedures and caved to political pressures, according to Lee.
Lee first filed the bill in 2017, but it did not get out of committee.
In addition to Lee, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. are co-sponsoring the bill.