(American Postal Workers Union News) Concerned about pending decisions before the National Labor Relations Board that could take away the collective bargaining rights of millions of workers, APWU officers and staff joined more than 1,500 labor activists at a spirited rally July 13 in Washington, DC. In a gathering at NLRB headquarters a few blocks from the White House, the APWU joined teachers, miners, nurses, municipal employees, and others in denouncing recent actions by the board and in urging the panel to protect workers’ rights to be represented by a union.In a gathering at NLRB headquarters a few blocks from the White House, the APWU joined teachers, miners, nurses, municipal employees, and others in denouncing recent actions by the board and in urging the panel to protect workers’ rights to be represented by a union.

The board is expected to make rulings this summer on important cases that have been pending for five years. Yet the NLRB has refused to hear oral arguments — a fundamental part of due process — since the Bush administration began. Speaking at the rally, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson asked: “How can this board make a decision that affects us without listening to all sides?”

The cases currently pending before the NLRB could strip hundreds of thousands of current union members of their rights by redefining their jobs as “supervisory.” An Economic Policy Institute report shows that a new definition could have a particularly dramatic impact in occupations in which skilled workers occasionally direct the work of employees in job classifications that require fewer skills. Full Story and more photos