Jerry Hunter, a law partner at Bryan Cave in St. Louis and the former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board

By Philip Dine 

When workers marched recently on the National Labor Relations Board in Washington and 19 regional offices to demand the board “close down for renovations,” it appeared to some a frivolous exercise.

Labor board Chairman Robert Battista said the protests were little more than “shrill political rhetoric” aimed at presidential politics next year.

But to a labor movement still reeling from decades of decline but now trying to flex its muscles again, the protests late last week were quite serious.

Union leaders believe that many of their problems result from restrictions on the formation of unions because of NLRB rulings during the Bush administration.

Jerry Hunter, a law partner at Bryan Cave in St. Louis and the former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board under the first President George Bush, doesn’t agree that the board is the source of labor’s woes.

“Part of this is the frustration by the unions over the whole issue of how do they increase their representation in the private sector workplace,” he said. Read more…

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