Reagan inherited the largest backlog in NLRB history and his Republican appointees worked steadily to reduce it. Examination of individual members' productivity shows that Democrat Patricia Dennis and Carter appointee Don Zimmerman were the least productive members. The notion of an intention to create a backlog was a union propaganda ploy that was debunked by hearings conducted by Rep. Barney Frank. Chairman Dotson was by far the most productive member of the Reagan NLRB followed by Republican Robert Hunter. This is all a matter of record with the Executive Secretary of the NLRB who carefully monitors individual member productivity by number of proposed decisions put into circulation, number of decisions that could be issued but for the vote of one member and the number of decisions participated in. Members Zimmerman and Dennis we consistently slow in putting proposed decisions into circulation and in acting on decisions that could issue but for their vote. Member Dennis was apparently shamed by the Frank hearings and increased her productivity. Member Zimmerman was always a drag. Board productivity is a conglomerate of individual productivity. The Chairman has no power to compel other members to be productive other than to set an example. If the other members had been as productive as Chairman Dotson and Member Hunter, the backlog would have been eliminated much sooner and would have remained low. There is no evidence that the Republicans did anything to create a backlog.
Congress should pass an appropriations rider that prohibits the NLRB from using "speed of case closure" as a performance metric. Robb obsessively focused on reducing those numbers by the most obvious method available-- intentionally tanking investigations so that charges would be dismissed without going to hearing (which is obviously much faster than actually litigating complaints) or, at best, taking softball settlements.
For the last few years, Regions have been so badly shortstaffed that in many cases the "investigation" amounted to asking the charging party to investigate the case for themselves, with no subpoena power, and then throwing the charge out for lack of evidence (never mind that the Region is supposed to be the one OBTAINING the evidence).
Given that the purpose of the Act is to obtain recoveries for employees, and the theory that what gets measured gets optimized, the only relevant performance metrics should be dollars recovered for employees and cases won/settled.
Marlowe.381 hr ago
Reagan inherited the largest backlog in NLRB history and his Republican appointees worked steadily to reduce it. Examination of individual members' productivity shows that Democrat Patricia Dennis and Carter appointee Don Zimmerman were the least productive members. The notion of an intention to create a backlog was a union propaganda ploy that was debunked by hearings conducted by Rep. Barney Frank. Chairman Dotson was by far the most productive member of the Reagan NLRB followed by Republican Robert Hunter. This is all a matter of record with the Executive Secretary of the NLRB who carefully monitors individual member productivity by number of proposed decisions put into circulation, number of decisions that could be issued but for the vote of one member and the number of decisions participated in. Members Zimmerman and Dennis we consistently slow in putting proposed decisions into circulation and in acting on decisions that could issue but for their vote. Member Dennis was apparently shamed by the Frank hearings and increased her productivity. Member Zimmerman was always a drag. Board productivity is a conglomerate of individual productivity. The Chairman has no power to compel other members to be productive other than to set an example. If the other members had been as productive as Chairman Dotson and Member Hunter, the backlog would have been eliminated much sooner and would have remained low. There is no evidence that the Republicans did anything to create a backlog.
Congress should pass an appropriations rider that prohibits the NLRB from using "speed of case closure" as a performance metric. Robb obsessively focused on reducing those numbers by the most obvious method available-- intentionally tanking investigations so that charges would be dismissed without going to hearing (which is obviously much faster than actually litigating complaints) or, at best, taking softball settlements.
For the last few years, Regions have been so badly shortstaffed that in many cases the "investigation" amounted to asking the charging party to investigate the case for themselves, with no subpoena power, and then throwing the charge out for lack of evidence (never mind that the Region is supposed to be the one OBTAINING the evidence).
Given that the purpose of the Act is to obtain recoveries for employees, and the theory that what gets measured gets optimized, the only relevant performance metrics should be dollars recovered for employees and cases won/settled.