Democrats lash Bush's "hostile" labor board

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats on Thursday criticized the U.S. government's labor relations board under the Bush administration as hostile to workers' rights, while Republicans complained of political grandstanding.

Amid controversy over a wave of recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board, a committee questioned NLRB Chairman Robert Battista and member Wilma Liebman at a joint hearing of Senate and House of Representatives panels.

The NLRB "is supposed to protect the voice of American workers, but the board is no longer fulfilling that responsibility," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and ally of the labor movement.

California Democratic Rep. George Miller said, "Workers' rights have been under near-constant assault in the years since the start of the Bush administration."

Battista, whose five-year term as chairman expires in three days, defended the NLRB's record. He said figures showed the board was more productive and efficient under his leadership.

"The agency is successfully carrying out its statutory mission," Battista said, accusing the board's critics of "special-interest attacks designed to gain support for their position in the coming election cycle."

California Republican Rep. Howard McKeon said Democrats convened the joint hearing "to appease the labor union special interests that helped put them in office by attacking decisions

of the NLRB that they do not view as sufficiently pro-union."