We can’t let partisan games keep us from enforcing the laws that protect working families.

We need our leaders looking out for middle-class families, not taking away their rights.The National Labor Relations Board enforces the laws that hold big corporations accountable and protects our safety, health, and rights in the workplace. It’s no surprise Republicans in Congress have been using procedural gimmicks to make the NLRB powerless — so it can’t hold their corporate campaign donors accountable for breaking the law. Without the NRLB, companies get away with firing workers illegally and denying parents the fair wages and decent benefits they’ve earned and need to take care of their families. Our leaders should be looking out for the people who elected them, not the corporate CEOs funding their campaigns.

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For those who say "What Obama did is simply un-American and it’s political payback to union stooges."

• When politicians say this, they’re talking about the heroes of 9/11, the cops who keep our streets safe, and the teachers who prepare our kids to compete in the world.
• The American people elected President Obama to enforce the law. The President has a responsibility to keep our government running. That’s what he’s doing.
• In America, we believe everyone should be paid a fair wage for a hard day’s work. Now the agency enforcing our workplace laws can now get back to work making sure that happens.

For those who say "We now have a runaway, anti-jobs, anti-business, pro-labor union board."

• Our economy works best when we value working people and businesses play by the rules.
• The NRLB makes sure businesses that pay their workers what they’re worth won’t get undercut by businesses that don’t. And paying workers well means American businesses will have more customers with money to keep them thriving and hiring. 
• Politicians who used procedural gimmicks to keep the agency powerless were just trying to take away the rights of middle-class families and let their corporate campaign donors get away with breaking the law.

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YOU MUST KNOW

• Before the President’s recess appointments this week, the NLRB had been effectively shut down since January 1 due to GOP obstructionism — with real life consequences like inviting rampant abuse by big corporations knowing the NLRB would be powerless.
• The U.S. already has the weakest worker protections in the developed world. Leaving the NLRB powerless only makes the situation worse for working Americans.
• While President Obama has made only about 30 recess appointments, George W. Bush made over 170 and Ronald Reagan made over 240. In fact, the past three Republican presidents have made recess appointments to the Board.
• More than 80% of Americans think people should have the right to join together to form unions so they can negotiate with employers on things like safer workplaces, fair pay, and decent benefits.
• Other countries with stronger worker protections and stronger unions — such as Germany — are doing better or at least as well as the U.S. in this economic downturn, and the American economy was at its strongest when unions were at their strongest.
• In CEO-friendly, anti-union states, union and non-union workers alike make less money, get less health care coverage, and get hurt on the job more.