As I wrote earlier, labor unions had been pushing Harry Reid to end the filibuster for executive nominees. So it’s no shocker that at least one union leader is furious over the deal the two parties reached to keep the filibuster in place, which includes replacing Obama’s National Labor Relations Board nominees with two new ones that weren’t appointed under the circumstances Republicans and the D.C. Circuit have argued was unlawful. From the Hill:
Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), said Tuesday that the two members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Sharon Block and Richard Griffin Jr., are “definitely tossed under the bus” in a Senate deal that will allow five of Obama’s other nominees to receive up-or-down votes before the Senate.
“There is not one intellectual argument, either about Block and Griffin, why those nominations shouldn’t go forward. It’s just [Republicans] want their pound of flesh from working people in this country, and this is where they’re going to get it because they were able to convince four or five Democrats to go with them,” he said.
“Those Democrats will know we know who they are, and we know, as a progressive coalition in this country, you will not split up the fight, and we will continue to work together . . . to fix the Senate,” Cohen added.
Still, the unions are getting very liberal Tom Perez for labor secretary.