Originally published in Labor Today
The right of workers to organize is under attack by the bosses of SpaceX and Trader Joe’s. These bosses are attempting to bring to the Supreme Court a lawsuit calling into question the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) enforcement agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This is a blatant attempt to silence the democratic desire of all workers in this country to collectively bargain.
In 1937, the NLRB was taken to the Supreme Court (NLRB v. Jones and Laughlin) and deemed constitutional. The bosses are claiming that the NLRB arbitration hearings are civil cases. This would justify their complaint that a lack of a jury in the hearings makes the board unconstitutional. The basis of the lawsuit from SpaceX relies on precedent that is still being litigated in Jarkesy v. SEC.
All workers deserve the right to organize within their workplaces, yet this right is constantly being eroded by bosses behind SpaceX, Tesla, and Trader Joe’s. The bosses’ claim that the NLRB is “tyranny” is a joke. Objectively, the real tyranny faced by millions of working people in this country is their continued pauperization and speed-up by bosses such as Elon Musk who unabashedly announced that workers will be sleeping on the production line to make his profits.
Labor United Educational League stands resolutely behind the workers fight for a workplace free from retribution and to unionize. This attack on the NLRB, a Federal agency which is already inconsistent in its support of workers, is an attempt to render the NLRA to the same fate as the National Industrial Recovery Act as toothless with no body to enforce it. This continued attack on labor renders it more important than ever for the militant rank-and-file to build a class-oriented trade union movement.
In solidarity,
Labor United Educational League
