WHITE HOUSE WITHDRAWS BATTISTA AS NLRB NOMINEE

WASHINGTON (PAI)--The GOP Bush regime announced May 6 that it withdrew the nomination of management-side labor lawyer Robert J. Battista, former National Labor Relations Board chairman, to a new 5-year term on the board.

Union leaders cheered the move, and had lobbied senators to turn down the Battista nomination, which Bush sent to the Senate Jan. 25. Under Battista’s reign, which ended Dec. 16, the NLRB became known for a series of partisan 3-2 party-line rulings restricting workers’ rights, ruling workers were not covered by labor law and cutting penalties for labor law-breaking.

Before chairing the NLRB, Battista was management’s lawyer during the bitter Detroit newspaper lockout. The AFL-CIO’s blog and other publications reported Battista joined the “law firm” of Littler Mendelson, which the fed said is a notorious union-buster.