President: Dave Wehner, NY
1st VP: Tasha Wallis, VT
2nd VP: Mike Acker, PA
Sec/Treas: Gretchen Maglich, MN
Immed. Past Pres.: Harry Payne, NC
The Regional Representatives remain the same.

Also during the business meeting the membership voted to hold the 2000 annual summer meeting in Georgia. Dates and location will be posted on the NAGLO webpage when they are confirmed.

Finally, Region III Representative John O'Connor (MD) has announced he will host a Regional meeting in October in Annapolis. The NAGLO Executive Board will likely hold its fall meeting in conjunction with the Regional meeting.

Meeting minutes and state reports have been mailed to all members.

The House Education and the Workforce Committee passed legislation (HR 1441) by party-line vote this week that will allow employers to reject job applicants if they believe the worker is seeking a position in order to organize a union.

Current law allows employers to restrict union activities to non-work hours and sites. Republicans on the Committee argue that currently law doesn't go far enough, while Democrats argue that this legislation would allow employers to discriminate against any person with a union background.

Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich) had a busy week on the worker protection front.

At a contentious press conference in New York City, Hoekstra attacked the US Department of Labor for not doing a sufficient job in the enforcement of laws to protect workers in the garment industry from exploitation.

Hoekstra expressed support for a number of bi-partisan initiatives to address the sweatshop problem. He also expressed concern that, despite public announcements that it would step up efforts to fight sweatshops, the Department hasn't provided him with any proof that it is doing so.

In the Department's defense, it stated that is has collected more than $17 million in back wages for 51,000 garment workers since it began to focus on the issue in 1993. The Department welcomed the Congressman's interest in the issue, and pledged to work with him as part of its ongoing efforts to address the problem.

Hoekstra stated that given the Department's budget, perhaps it should transfer some of its existing funding to address this problem and back off on other "issues on its agenda."

In keeping with the theme of the day, the Congressman also announced the completion of a controversial review of US Labor Law which has concluded that an "oppressive and out-dated" statutory framework is increasing the cost and uncertainty of doing business in the United States, prompting US companies to leave the country.

The yet-to-be released report is the result of a $1.4 million project authorized by the House Oversight Committee in July 197 at the request of Hoekstra - who also took the lead on the study.

The report apparently includes a number of proposals for law changes, and has been called "anti-worker" by the Labor Department.

The House is sticking to its goal of completing all but one of the 13 appropriations bills prior to the August recess (which starts next Friday). The "one" is the Labor-HHS appropriation bill which has been scheduled for consideration after the recess due to the inevitability of controversy that will surround the bill.

Members are concerned that it will be impossible to protect programs from cuts if Congress is required to work within the spending caps that were set in the original balanced budget legislation. Congress has been working to find new and creative ways to get around the caps, such as designating regular VA spending as "emergency" so it is not counted against the caps.

The US Immigration and Naturalization Service is under fire again for delays in processing foreign worker visa applications.

At a hearing on July 29 in the House, both Republican and Democrat members expressed frustration with the Service's poor record. Both sides of the aisle have introduced reform legislation that will replace the existing INS by creating separate bureaus within the Justice Department, one focusing on processing applications for visas and legal benefits, the other on enforcement of US immigration laws.

The chair of the House subcommittee hosting the hearing, Lamar Smith (R-Texas), pointed out that the INS currently has a backlog of 4.4 million pending applications for benefits, including 1.8 million naturalization petitions and 800,000 applications for permanent residence.

In another party line vote by the House Education and the Workforce Committee, legislation was approved that would award attorney's fees and court costs to some companies that prevail in proceedings instigated by the NLRB or OSHA. Only companies that have fewer that 100 employees would be eligible for the fee reimbursement.

The North Carolina legislature has taken a page out of the US Congress' handbook and passed legislation that will prevent the state Labor Department from implementing or enforcing and ergonomics standard until after fiscal year 2000-2001. The language does not prevent the development of a standard, however.

On July 22 the NC DOL submitted its proposed ergonomic standard to the Rules Review Commission. It will also go before the legislature next session. If no action is taken, it will become a rule - though the rule can't be implemented or enforced until after the date set by the legislature.