This is why it’s nice to have a Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board: workers get rights. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that an employee can safely discuss work issues with their co-workers on Facebook without fearing punishment by their employer.

“We will not threaten to kill you or to cause you bodily harm because you engage in activities in support of SEIU, Local 32BJ.” That is the most the NLRB can do in a situation where the owner of the real estate company threaten to both kill and have arrested a union activist protecting in front of his home.

For the first time since December 2007, the National Labor Relations Board has all five of its members. Yesterday the NLRB swore in its fifth member, Republican Brian Hayes, for a full term after he and Democratic board member Mark Pearce were unanimously confirmed by the US Senate in late June. (Pearce was already on the board through a recess appointment.) Of course, now the only person on the NLRB without a full term is Craig Becker, whose recess appointment lasts until the end of the year when the Senate ends its current session.

In a 5-4 decision issued this morning, the Supreme Court ruled that more than 600 cases decided by two members of the National Labor Relations Board are invalid and will need to be re-opened. That means more than two years’ worth of work by the NLRB is out the window, leaving thousands of workers in limbo.

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Ronald Meisburg will resign from his post before the end of June, about two months shy of the official end of his term. Yesterday, the law firm which Meisburg plans to join, Proskauer Rose LLP, trumpeted his hire in a press release. The firm, and Meisburg, are quite shameless about the revolving door problem, it seems. Not only did Proskauer Rose brag about the hire, but it gleefully reported that the addition of Meisburg will allow its management clients to better fight the “activist role” of the “Obama NLRB.”

Craig Becker clearly has a bias acknowledging the existence of labor unions. This unfairly taints his perception. Craig Becker should simply recuse himself from any NLRB cases that involves any kind of union or labor organization, in the past present or future. It’s only fair.

Today President Obama announced a series of recess appointments, including – count ‘em – two seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Both appointees, Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, are Democrats nominees. A third nominee, Brian Hayes, a staffer for Senator Mike Enzi, was left behind to be voted on by the Senate.

David Dayen at over at our News Desk reports that Tom Harkin is telling folks Craig Becker will get a recess appointment in the next week or so. About frickin’ time.

With Obama set to unveil the pre-Scott Brown health care compromise for next week’s bipartisan lovefest, the already fragile deal is falling apart. Fresh off a stinging slap to the face in which Obama refused to appoint Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, labor unions are apparently backing out of the deal on the excise tax on high-cost health care plans.

If Obama doesn’t appoint Becker, I give up.