WASHINGTON--U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, urged the White House to heed bipartisan opposition to Craig Becker, the Administration’s controversial nominee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and not circumvent the Senate’s vote today by appointing him to the post when the Senate is out of session.

“The Senate spoke with a loud, clear and bipartisan voice that Craig Becker’s views are outside of the mainstream and that he would not be able to serve as an impartial member of National Labor Relations Board,” said Hatch. “I sincerely hope the White House does not circumvent the will of the Senate by appointing him when the Senate is out of session.”

Hatch is concerned that Becker, a lawyer for union giants the AFL-CIO and SEIU, would be unable to be an impartial member of NLRB and that his views, outlined in numerous controversial journal articles, that card check could come into effect through regulation put him outside of the mainstream.

“His view that so-called card check legislation, denying workers the secret ballot in union elections, could be enacted through regulation is deeply troubling. As is his work on behalf of the scandal plagued organization ACORN,” continued Hatch. “Furthermore, he never satisfactorily answered a series of questions that I posed to him – failing to reassure me that his years of service to labor unions would not color his decisions at the NLRB.”

Becker wrote that “employers should have no legally-sanctioned role in union elections” and also that "employers should be stripped of any legally cognizable interest in their employees' election of representatives." If employers should have no role in union representation elections, then employers would be prohibited from insisting on a private, NLRB-supervised secret ballot election to determine employee votes on union representation.

ACORN, the controversial organization linked to numerous instances of alleged voter fraud, has praised Mr. Becker’s service in working to organize home care workers.

Hatch was unable to return to Washington in time for the vote. He would have voted against Becker’s nomination if he had been present.