[a publishing note: this post was actually posted–or so it appeared–two days ago. The server for my provide then wigged out and…well, you don’t care about the specifics]. So, I’m reposting it now]

The brazen nature of corporate greed and abuse reeks out of every corner in our country. You can point to the obliteration of pensions that people thought they would have when the retired–while executive enrich themselves. Or the growing divide between CEO pay and worker pay. There just isn’t anymore shame left in America today.

And here comes another outrage. Out there in the workplace, where it’s already almost impossible to form a union, business has decided, you know, it’s still too easy for workers to get a union. So, business, with a little help from the Bush Administration, is going to make it just a little harder to have union protection.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is pondering a set of cases collectively called Kentucky River. To cut to the chase, these cases want to turn regular workers into “supervisors” under the law–and, as many of you know, supervisors are considered to be outside union bargaining units. In a normal, sane world, these cases (involving nurses) would not pass the smell test: the employers are seeking to classify these nurses as “supervisors” because they exercise “independent judgement” (“yes, that patient is going into cardiac arrest so I better do something”) and “responsibly direct other employees.” Doing so, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, would potentially take as many as 8 million workers out of union bargaining units. Poof. with the stroke of a pen.

The AFL-CIO is trying to ramp up the noise about these cases and kudos on that score–and I also understand that Change To Win is working via the central labor bodies in cooperation. It’s a good fight–done right, it will appear as just unfair.

Another question needs to be asked: why isn’t the Democratic Party, with one voice, up in arms, publicly shouting about this outrage?