Early last week, I had the opportunity to visit a friend and former NYSUT Board member, Michael Barbera, in a nursing and rehabilitation center on Long Island. Michael is recuperating from a serious illness with more than a few complications. It was Michael, just about a decade ago, who first encouraged me to run for a seat on the NYSUT Board of Directors.

In addition to both of us recalling a cold winter evening in Montauk when Michael planted that idea in my head, we reminisced about many historical events in the labor movement we had both witnessed. Michael has always been a champion of unions, public and private, in education and in other fields. So it was with great pride that he proclaimed that he wouldn't let them admit him to the rehab center until he was assured it was a unionized facility. "Everyone here is 1199 SEIU, Dick. Otherwise, I would not have let them take me here," Michael beamed.

Well, Michael, they may not be all union members for long if the NLRB has its way. The latest historic event impacting the American labor movement is not a positive one. It's a horrific rule by the NLRB that has the potential to succeed where many dictators and despots have failed - denying workers the right to organize.

It's being called the Kentucky River decision but, in fact, the National Labor Relations Board ruling of Oct. 3 involved three cases, one of which - Oakwood Healthcare Inc. - creates a new definition of "supervisor." The board's definition enables employers to make a supervisor out of any private-sector worker who has the authority to assign or direct another and uses independent judgment. The NLRB also ruled that workers can be classified as supervisors if they spend as little as 10 to 15 percent of their time overseeing the work of others.

The NLRB ruling could allow employers to strip the right to join a union from up to 8 million more workers by manipulating titles and job descriptions of nurses and other professionals and skilled workers. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the NLRB decisions "outrageous and unjustified."

Brother Sweeney was right, of course, but the decisions were not unexpected. This NLRB - the majority members appointed by President Bush and confirmed by his friends in the U.S. Senate - has a history of eroding workers' rights. The labor group, Jobs with Justice, reminds us that the Bush NLRB has:

• Stripped the right to form unions from graduate research assistants, disabled employees and temp agency workers.
• Ruled that employers may prohibit communications between workers expressing displeasure over working conditions.
• Weakened legal protection against employer threats.
• Allowed employers to ban off-duty fraternization among employees.
• Allowed employers to make unsubstantiated threats about what would happen if a union was formed.
• Allowed employers to retaliate against workers who seek community support for their organizing campaigns.

In addition, President Bush's Department of Labor has reclassified broad groups of workers, denying them the ability to receive overtime pay, and has fought to strip tens of thousands of federal employees of their right to join a union.

It's not the NLRB created in 1935 anymore; not under this administration, not with this congressional majority. The irony, as NYSUT Director of Field Operations Mark Chaykin tells New York Teacher in the Oct. 19 issue, is that the NLRB was created to assist workers in forming or joining unions. Not now, though. The NLRB has a definite pro-business, pro-management and anti-union bent.

United University Professions President William Scheuerman discussed the Kentucky River decisions in a recent radio commentary. Bill, a member of the NYSUT Executive Committee, told his listeners:

"It is the president and his profit-hungry corporate cronies who are waging class warfare and the most recent NLRB decision is part of the ongoing campaign … While union busters stand on the sidelines cheering, President Bush's class war is breaking the back of America's middle class and turning the United States into a country of haves and have-nots."

Get out the vote ... means you

Another, more immediate, issue that needs to be front and center for NYSUT members is the Nov. 7 elections. The print version of the Nov. 2 edition of New York Teacher carries the complete list of our endorsed candidates.

In my last column, I discussed the importance of working on behalf of these candidates and, of course, voting for them on Election Day. They are, as I wrote, the very best candidates for the offices they seek and they deserve our support based on their positions on education, health care and labor. More than in past years, our congressional races are in many ways just as important, if not more important, than our state legislative races. The No Child Left Behind law, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, pension protection, Medicare, labor laws and rulings impacting hospitals, schools and higher education are all being played out in Washington, yet impact us every day at our work sites.

We must get to the polls and get our endorsed candidates elected.

Thank you, SRPs

Finally, as this New York Teacher was going to press, several hundred School-Related Professionals - those members who help transport, educate, feed and tend to our children, and who keep our schools clean and safe and our offices running smoothly - were gathering in Albany for their annual leadership conference. Vice President Kathleen Donahue and her staff put together another strong program designed to further involve SRPs in their union, enhance their profession and honor the work they do every day.

We'll all have an opportunity to recognize and thank our SRP colleagues on Nov. 15, New York State School-Related Professionals Recognition Day. This statewide celebration is a direct result of a resolution submitted by 13 locals to the NYSUT Representative Assembly in 2002. A year later, the state Legislature adopted and the governor signed a legislative resolution declaring Nov. 18, 2003, to be the first School-Related Professionals Recognition Day. The recognition days have continued since then, getting bigger and better every year.

And it's appropriate. SRPs are vital to the education of our students and in helping to turn schools into successful learning environments. As Vice President Donahue reminded me the other day:

"SRPs are among NYSUT's most diverse constituencies in terms of the work they do and services they provide. They work side by side as partners in education with other school staff on both the front lines and behind the scenes. They deserve this special recognition."

I wholeheartedly agree.

On behalf of all the NYSUT officers, thank you, SRPs, and enjoy your special day.