Senator Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) opening remarks on the first day of Senate HELP Committee hearings on the nomination of Craig Becker to the NLRB, available here, contained a salvo of questions probing the nominee’s controversial positions on key labor relations law issues, such as his view that employers should have no right express their views to employees in union representation elections.   

After pointing out some of Becker’s more polemical writings, the Senator said skeptically, “[M]ost importantly, [Mr. Becker] should explain how productive a board member he can be when he is required for at least one year, and possibly longer, to recues himself under the government ethics rules from cases involving the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, when he continues to be employed by both.” 

Senator Hatch, long an outspoken legislator on national labor and employment law issues, along with Senate HELP Committee Chairman Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will be the keynote speakers at Jackson Lewis’ Corporate Counsel Conference on May 13 in Washington D.C.