Today, the NAM filed its opening brief on the appeal of the U.S. District Court’s decision on the Notice Posting case against the NLRB.  The NAM believes the NLRB lacks the authority to require all employers to put up a poster of employees’ rights.

The judge in the U.S. District Court, however, did not find in favor of the NAM’s argument and held the poster requirement was valid under the Board’s authority to require the poster.  The NAM immediately appealed this decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and also filed an injunction motion to prevent the rule from taking effect on April 30.  On April 17, the NAM was victorious in winning the injunction motion and preventing the rule from going into effect until the appeal is decided.

In the brief filed this afternoon, the NAM argues the U.S. District Court erred in its finding that the Board has the authority to require employers to put up a poster.  The NAM points to the legislative intent of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), showing Congress never intended to give the NLRB broad rule-making authority outside of unfair labor practice remedies or representation proceedings.

In fact, the legislative history shows when the Act was amended, the inclusion of a notice posting requirement was rejected by Congress.  Congress, however, included similar provisions in other labor-related laws passed before and after the NLRA.  Why would Congress reject an amendment to the NLRA if they wanted the NLRB to have this authority?  It is clear to the NAM and the answer is simple, Congress never intended for the Board to have the authority to require employers to do something or put something up on a wall.  We hope the Appeals Court sees this as clearly as the NAM does.

The era of commercial space flight dawned today as an unmanned rocket owned by Space Exploration Technologies lifted off from Cape Canaveral. Its mission, to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

News accounts noted that, “NASA is counting on companies like Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to take over the task of flying cargo – and eventually astronauts – to the $100 billion space station, which orbits about 240 miles above Earth. If its test flight is successful, SpaceX would become the first private company to reach the space station, a microgravity research complex for biological, materials, fluid physics and other science experiments and technology demonstrations.”

It’s a big accomplishment and we here at NAM are proud to have a member company like Space Exploration Technologies leading the way in such profound fashion.

Last week the NAM joined forces with the National Chamber Foundation and the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) for a  discussion on manufacturing and the 12 million men and women who make up its workforce.

NAM members like General Electric’s Jamie Regg, Bison Gear and Engineering Chairman Ron Bullock, and Quality Float Works President and Design Engineer Sandra Westlund-Dennihan talked in depth about the environment for manufacturers today and what they need to succeed and bring in skilled workers.

NAM’s own Aric Newhouse moderated the first panel and helped offer an expert’s view on what’s going on in Washington and the challenges facing our nation today. He pressed policy makers to begin the all-important discussion of comprehensive tax reform now rather than waiting until the end of the year.

Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg capped off the event with a strong summation of how the U.S. can maintain the mantle of the global manufacturing leader.

Click here to check out pictures from the event.

Today’s Wall Street Journal detailed the comments of Lockheed Martin’ new CEO, Christopher Kubasik, on the upcoming defense budget cuts.

The automatic $500 billion in cuts, known as sequestration, are looming after the “Super Committee” failed to reach a budget deal last fall. According to the article:

“U.S. contractors have struggled to define the future size and shape of their businesses due to uncertainty over whether failure to reach a broader agreement on the federal budget will automatically trigger an additional $500 billion reduction in Pentagon spending under the so-called sequestration process.

“Sequestration will absolutely devastate the industry,” said Mr. Kubasik, echoing comments by other contractors. While the impact so far has been limited, companies are starting contingency planning.”

The NAM has formed a Defense Working Group on this critical issue to closely studying the impact of the cuts. It’s clear that the defense cuts would have a negative ripple effect up and down the supply chain, among manufacturers of all sizes, eliminate jobs across the U.S., and harm institutional advantage that the U.S. enjoys in research and development.

Today’s Wall Street Journal painted a pretty picture about manufacturing’s success in the first quarter of 2012. Companies like 3M Co., Cummins Inc., and Eaton have reported increased earnings and improved forecasts for the rest of the year. This is good news and a testament to the strength of manufacturing in the U.S.

The lion’s share of the credit is given to domestic successes with the caveat that future growth is largely dependent on growth in Europe and China.

However, the article doesn’t paint the full picture. Manufacturers in the U.S. are succeeding in spite of the current environment of regulation and the ongoing threat of tax hikes. Yet, as the article explains, “Despite rising profits, manufacturers remain cautious about hiring in the U.S., generally relying on their current workforces to churn out more products.”

Getting down to brass tacks here – manufacturers in the U.S. are leading our economic recovery, but they are doing so in a hostile environment for business. To maintain domestic success and lessen our dependence on fluctuations in markets overseas, Washington needs to put forth policies that place certainty back in the tax system and make sure that regulations don’t stand in the way of growth and job creation.

We’ve had enough of the class warfare rhetoric and choking regulations – it’s past time to implement policies that will eliminate the 20% cost disadvantage manufacturers face and work together to foster our own economic recovery.

Politico’s Influence column, the daily focus on government relations, lobbying, and issue advocacy, covered the NAM’s efforts against the NLRB’s ‘ambush elections’ rule. 

NAM JOINS IN THE NLRB PUSHBACK: The National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business are up with radio spots targeting members in Virginia, Montana and Missouri ahead of a vote in the Senate next week to disapprove of the NRLB’s “ambush” elections rule. The ads slam “unelected bureaucrats in Washington” for the rules that they say will make it harder for business to grow. “Rather than enforce existing rules, the National Labor Relations Board is imposing new regulations like ambush elections, overturning decades of labor laws to benefit special interests at the expense of hard working taxpayers in Virginia,” the ad says. The trade groups are also doing online ad buys to get the message across.

You can listen to the ads here and take action against the rule by visiting NAM’s advocacy page here.

I hope you’re sitting down while you’re reading this because I’ve got some shocking news. The New York Times ran an editorial today supporting the big government agenda being executed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NAM is listed as the lead boogeyman opposing the Board’s overreach in the posting requirement rule.

Unsurprisingly the Times completely misses the point about the NAM’s lawsuit against the Board. They minimize the harmful precedent the posting requirement sets, and much like the NLRB, the Times does it’s best to ignore Congressional intent and decades of existing labor law. As Jay Timmons, the NAM’s President and CEO, has noted, the posting rule represents “an unprecedented attempt by the Board to assert power and authority it does not possess.”

In reality, objective observers understand that this lawsuit is fundamentally about putting an end to the NLRB’s radical agenda that threatens long-term harm to workplace relations and the NAM is proud to lead the charge against it. When you disagree with New York Times about labor policy, you must be doing something right.

Al Lubrano, Vice Chair of NAM’s Small and Medium Manufacturer’s Group, and Craig Giffi, Vice Chairman at Deloitte, testified today before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. The hearing also featured Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, Dr. Ken Tindall, Vice President of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and Dr. Robert Atkinson, President and Founder of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Al Lubrano, Vice Chair of NAM's Small and Medium Manufacturers Group, testifies before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade

The hearing, titled “Where the Jobs Are: Can American Manufacturing Thrive Again?,” was answered with a resounding yes from each of the witnesses. Mr. Lubrano, the President of Materion Technical Materials in Lincoln, Rhode Island, told the committee that his company is achieving things that were not technologically possible even two years ago. He said that MTM is rebounding after an incredibly difficult period over the past few years, but he stressed that manufacturers in the U.S. need policies that will increase competitiveness and lower their 20% cost disadvantage compared to foreign competitors.

He stressed the need for more free trade agreements that will expand available markets for manufacturers in the U.S., the critical function of the Export-Import Bank in increasing exports, and discussed the benefits that a comprehensive “all-of-the-above” energy strategy would create for manufacturers.

Both Mr. Lubrano and Mr. Giffi responded to questions from Chairwoman Mary Bono-Mack (R-CA) that centered on the skills gap that manufacturers face. Currently 600,000 manufacturing jobs are unfilled because employers can’t find workers with the necessary skills. Each discussed the need for more highly skilled workers for today’s manufacturing economy and focused attention on the need for better training programs and improved educational options.

Dorothy Coleman, the NAM’s Vice President of Tax and Domestic Economic Policy, sent a letter today to Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) on behalf of manufacturers, urging them to derail the significant cuts in defense spending set to take effect in 2013.

While the NAM acknowledges the serious fiscal issues facing our nation, the letter notes that the cuts will cost thousands of manufacturing jobs across the nation and urges legislators to find a less damaging method of addressing the national debt.

“The U.S. defense and aerospace industry and their suppliers play an important role in our economy as manufacturers, innovators, and creators of good high-paying jobs. Millions of American jobs are connected to the aerospace and defense industry and the jobs of many of these workers will be threatened if the additional cuts in defense spending under the Budget Control Act of 2011 go into effect. In particular, under-funded programs could force companies to furlough or lay off current employees and drop plans for new hires.”

The letter goes on to detail how critical the defense industry is to the competitive edge the U.S. maintains across the globe through the research and development that comes out of defense and aerospace manufacturing. Once eliminated, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to rebuild.

Manufacturers are committed to getting the nation’s fiscal house in order the solution won’t be found in job killing measures that undermine our national security.

Today NAM joined a coalition of associations in sending a letter to Speaker Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi that offers positive steps to improve U.S. cyber security without creating an undue regulatory burden on manufacturers in the U.S. Included in the letter are suggestions for increasing public awareness and education, information sharing, and improving research and development.

 “The strength of our free enterprise system is directly tied to the prosperity and security of our interconnected world. Cyberspace has become a bulwark of the global economy, with businesses of all sizes increasingly dependent on it for their day-to-day operations. Yet while innovative technologies help businesses achieve great efficiencies and run our vital infrastructures, we have also seen nefarious global actors—including organized criminals, hacktivists, industrial spies, and foreign governments—take inappropriate advantage of a cyber-environment that is open and welcoming to users.”

Throughout 2012, the NAM has closely monitored Congress’ ongoing debate regarding cyber security in the U.S. Manufacturers are committed to ensuring that the U.S. is well equipped to address the cyber threat facing our nation and has weighed in with suggestions and comments on the several legislative initiatives that have been offered in both the House and Senate. As this issue moves forward, manufacturers will be watching closely