Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) issued the following statement after the Republican Majority issued a budget reducing funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

“In its effort to curb the rights of working men and women, the Republicans may also be doing away with the 2011 National Football League season. Just as in 1995, a new Republican Majority is using a budget crisis and recent election victory to settle long-standing political scores.  What also happened in 1995 was that the Major League Baseball strike had just destroyed the 1994 season and was about to do the same to the 1995 season when Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled on a National Labor Relation Board’s request for an injunction that ended the strike.  It was not collective bargaining that brought those players back on the field; it was the National Labor Relations Board.

“Today, the National Football League stands on the precipice of its own lost season as the owners prepare to lock the players out.  They have already filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union with the NLRB.  However, Republicans have targeted funding for the NLRB, reducing the amount requested by President Obama, and even proposing an amendment to cut off all funding (which thankfully failed).  If Republicans got their way, it is likely the NLRB would have insufficient resources to properly mediate a dispute between the owners and players. That would result in stadiums across the country being dark, and thousands of people who work in them out of work come September.  However, they had no problem voting for extending tax cuts that benefitted the wealthiest Americans, but not most football fans and stadium workers.”

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