Carew Concrete chief to testify on proposed union election rule changes

Sources: Office of U.S. Representative John Kline (R-MN); National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; CP staff

By Don Marsh

John Carew, president of Concrete Concrete & Supply Co., is one of five industry representatives or federal labor policy experts scheduled to testify July 7 at a Capitol Hill hearing titled “Rushing Union Elections: Protecting the Interests of Big Labor at the Expense of Workers’ Free Choice.”

Speaking on behalf of his Appleton, Wis., business and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, he will assess a National Labor Relations Board-proposed rule likely narrowing—from 45–60 days to 10–21 days—the election window for workers voting on union representation. U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline scheduled the hearing after the NLRB issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking–Representation-Case Procedures late last month.

“The Obama [NLRB] continues to feed the fear and uncertainty facing America’s job creators,” noted Congressman Kline in a statement. “The latest example is the NLRB’s proposal to stifle an employer’s right to communicate with his or her workers and cripple a worker’s ability to make a fully informed decision about whether to join a union. How this blatant attempt to promote the agenda of Big Labor serves the best interest of the nation’s workforce is beyond the realm of common sense.”

The July 7 hearing will take place at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2175; a live webcast will be available here.

John Carew will be the second NRMCA producer member in a month to testify at a U.S. House hearing on proposed rules and regulations. J.J. Kennedy’s Rusty Rader spoke for the industry on June 14, during “Do Not Enter: How Proposed Hours of Service Trucking Rules are a Dead End for Small Businesses,” called by House Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO).