1,000 Demand NLRB "Close for Renovations"

Freezing rain did not deter more than 1,000 workers and labor leaders from marching to the National Labor Relations Board's Washington, DC headquarters Thursday, calling for the NLRB to be closed for renovation until the Board is more balanced.  The protest drew unionists, religious allies, a wide range of supporters and sympathetic honks from D.C. drivers, cabbies and truckers all along the parade route. The Washington protest was one of more than 25 nationwide, including in Chicago and Los Angeles.  "We're back!" roared Metro Washington Council President Jos Williams as the crowd massed outside the NLRB cheered. "And we'll keep coming back until the Board gets it right for American workers!" The protestors pointed to a recent flood of anti-worker decisions handed down by the NLRB in September as evidence of the current Board's continuing assault on workers, and said that the NLRB has abandoned its original mission to uphold workers' rights. "These new rules from the Labor Board undo everything we worked to achieve," said Jonathan Upright, an AT&T retail sales consultant who recently formed a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in Winston-Salem, NC, and whose employer posted a sign notifying workers of how they can get rid of the new union. "The Bush Board has steamrolled the rights of American workers again and again," United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts said. "This is not the NLRB.  This is George Bush's board.  This is Dick Cheney's board.  This is the Chamber of Commerce's board.  This is the National Association of Manufacturers' board.  And it sure as hell ain't the Labor Board!' declared Roberts. - report by Chris Garlock; includes reporting by Mark Gruenberg Press Associates, Inc; photos by Andy Richards