The Milwaukee Post

By OWEN ROBINSON There was an interesting ruling by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board last week that will have lasting implications. But there is also a his- tory worth remembering about how we got here. Since the very early days of President Barack Obama's administration, he has been doing everything he can to repay his Big Union allies. One of the things Obama has done is to work hard to radicalize the National Labor Relations Board by packing it with extreme pro-union appointees in order to turn it into an union advocacy organization instead of an unbiased arbiter of implementing union laws. This led to Obama going so far as to make recess appointments to the NLRB even when Congress was still in session. That move was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and has been appealed to the Supreme Court. The ruling from the Supreme Court is expected in a few months. Meanwhile, however, Obama's unconstitu- tional appointees have been sitting on the NLRB and making decisions for years. Peter Sung Ohr, the regional director of the Chicago Office for the NLRB, was also appointed in 2011. Last week he ruled that the athletes with scholar- ships at Northwestern University are not ama- teur athletes, but actu- ally they are employees of Northwestern University and could unionize. The opinion only applies to pri- vate colleges, but it has far-reaching impli- cations. Ohr's rationale was primarily two-fold. First, according to the NLRB, an employee is under strict control of managers. The regimented life of a college athlete is quite regimented by coaches who control every- thing from what they can eat to when they workout. This, according to Ohr, consti- tutes conditions of employment. Second, Ohr argued that the scholarships that the athletes receive constitute compensation — another key component of employment. Ohr's ruling has opened up a myriad questions that he does not have the power to answer. First, let us look at the impact on college athletics itself. If college athletes are unionized, what will they bargain for? Reduced workout time? Equal playing time? An arbitration process for when one athlete is put in the starting lineup and another is not? Will they argue for rule changes in the sports themselves? What happens when an athlete's scholarship is withdrawn? What of the athlete's National Collegiate Athletic Association amateur status? The NCAA has very strict rules about college athletes being amateurs that forbid them from receiving compensation of any sort – even things like free meals or swag from supporters. If these athletes are now employees receiving compensation, will they be banned from participating in NCAA events? What about the athletes who have the ability to represent their country in the Olympics? Like the NCAA, the Olympics forbid most professionals from participation. Will these athletes be exclud- ed? Beyond the world of sports, if one feder- al agency says that these athletes are now employees, how does that impact other fed- eral agencies? Will the college now have to withhold FICA and income taxes from their scholarship and issue them a W2? Will the athletes have to file a return and find the money to pay and underpayments even though the NCAA forbids them from hav- ing a job? Many of those scholarship funds are filled with donations that were tax deductible for the donors. Will the IRS have to go back to the donors and reconcile their tax deductions? How will union dues be withheld or will the athletes have to pay them out of pocket even though they cannot have an income? Because the athletes from many of these colleges travel to many states to play, will they have to files state tax returns in each state as professional ath- letes do? If not, why not? If they are truly employees, then shouldn't they have to abide by the same rules by which all other employees abide? Ohr has opened up a can of worms for which the consequences are vast for both college sports and the college athletes' lives, but Obama's radical NLRB does not care. Its singular objective is apparently to drive more union membership because more union members means more union dues to flow into Democrats' campaign cof- fers. They are succeeding. (Owen Robinson is a West Bend resident. His column runs frequently in The Post.) April 4, 2014 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 Long-long-longtime Congressman Tom Petri is a Republican but he's not particu- larly conservative. Petri represents the old breed of Republican who lives to spend money, just not as much as the Democrats. That's why there is real talk of a major chal- lenge to Petri in this summer's Republican primary. But before conservatives get behind the effort, they need to decide if they are serious. An unsuccessful challenge to Petri would be pointless and would only serve to further divide the party in a year in which it desperately needs some unity. Petri is vulnerable not only because he is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) but because the 2010 redistricting has moved his district into areas he has never repre- sented before including parts of ultra-con- servative Ozaukee and Washington coun- ties. A rising conservative star, state Assemblyman Duey Stroebel of Mequon, is seriously considering a run. But Stroebel doesn't have anywhere near the resources of Petri, a wealthy guy who has amassed a big campaign war chest from years of not having a serious opponent. Stroebel would need at least $1 million to make a serious run. If conservatives aren't ready to come up with the cash, this whole plan is dubi- ous. Wisconsin Republicanism is personified these days by reformers like Governor Scott Walker and Congressman Paul Ryan. Hard- liners like Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner still fit in but Petri seems lost. He's been in Washington since 1979 and nobody can name a thing he's ever done. That's because he doesn't do much other than vote no on party-line votes and try to bring home some pork for his central Wisconsin district. What is telling is what Petri has made his priority. He is the national champion of bike paths. Petri has labored hard to get fed- eral funds for bike paths all over the coun- try. Indeed, Petri is a Bike Path Republican. It isn't hard to figure out why we have a $17 trillion federal debt when a solid Republican congressional district is repre- sented by a guy who has spent three decades mugging taxpayers so a bunch of people can ride their bikes in the woods. Petri is nowhere to be found on critical issues like spending reform, tax cutting and restructuring and entitlement reform. He's too busy with his bike paths. We can do a lot better. Stroebel, on the other hand, is a core conservative with real ability. He deserves lots of credits for pushing through the Legislature this year the bill that restricts hours for in-person absentee voting. It's a bill that has earned the wrath of Democrats and the media and Stroebel's fight for it was revealing. He seems like the real deal. But he shouldn't run if he isn't ready to win. The old mob theory is that you don't go after the top guy unless you intend to crush him. It works in politics and government too. * * * I'll never forget the Republican unifica- tion rally after Petri won a contested GOP primary for Congress in 1979. The seat was vacant because of the death of Congressman Bill Steiger. An eloquent Petri got up and said he wanted to go to Washington to tell well-intended people that the thing they were seeking funding for may be a good idea but that "we just don't have the money for it." The crowd loved it. Sadly, Petri went to Washington and went native. He didn't become the guy who told people we don't have money for their pet projects. Instead, he became the bike path guy. * * * Petri and I go way back. I started a night- ly talk show at a radio station in Oshkosh. The first show was Dec. 31, 1979. Yup, New Year's Eve. Petri was my in-studio guest. After the show he gave me some career advice. He said I needed to go to a South American country that he was convinced was the next global hot spot. He said I'd be the only guy there when all hell broke loose. The country was Paraguay. Since then, no hell has broken loose. Just about every other nation in South America has blown up in the interim. if I had taken Petri's advice, I'd still be there. Waiting. On the other hand, had I gone, I wouldn't be here now to clamor for ousting Petri from Congress. Maybe he did know what he was talking about. * * * The absentee voting bill sponsored by Stroebel and signed into law by Governor Walker has inflamed the media and the left. They claim blacks are being disenfran- chised by ending weekend voting in the two weeks prior to the election. It's an absurd point since nobody will be able to vote on weekends. The problem is that only voters in Milwaukee and Madison, both Democrat strongholds, were holding weekend voting. The Stroebel reform moves us closer to uni- form voting hours, which ought to be a defining principle of the sacred American concept of "one man, one vote." But don't look for the bill to be in effect in this year's elections. It's another one of those conservative bills certain to be stuck down by a liberal Madison judge and put on hold until the state Supreme Court can ulti- mately uphold it. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post.) MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE OPINION Stroebel seen as potential Petri challenger Radical NLRB lets effects fall where they may Robinson

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