More momentum for unions

The appointment of longtime union insider Wilma Liebman as head of the National Labor Relations Board is another blow to the retail industry. President Obama named Liebman chair of the NLRB, as the retail industry faces the possibility that the Employee Free Choice Act will become law and will remove the secret ballot voting process, thereby making it easier for unions to organize retail workers.

Liebman’s appointment was embraced by organized labor groups, with Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, calling her a progressive labor lawyer who fought against Republican efforts to weaken unions and rob workers of their right to organize.

“The NLRB was created to protect the right to organize so workers could join unions. Now, with President Obama’s choice of Wilma Liebman, the NLRB will have the leadership it needs to start living up to its mission again,” Applebaum said.

Liebman joined the NLRB board in 1997, when she was appointed by President Clinton. She was reappointed by President Bush in 2002 and again in 2007. Early in her career, she served as an NRLB staff attorney from 1974 to 1980, and also spent nine years as legal counsel to the Teamsters union and three years as labor counsel to the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen union.