Friday, January 30, 2009

More Orders   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama plans Friday to reverse an executive order allowing unionized companies to post signs alerting employees that they are allowed to leave unions.

Critics of the order said that while unionized shops were allowed to let workers know they could de-unionize, non-unionized shops were not required to post information telling employees they could unionize.

Two senior administration officials confirmed this and three other orders to be issued by the president.

Another order would require service contractors at federal buildings to offer jobs to qualified current employees when contracts change. A third would require federal vendors with more than $100,000 in contracts to post workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Another order would prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses that were intended to influence workers' decisions to form unions or engage in collective bargaining.

Obama also will also issue a presidential memorandum creating the Middle Class Task Force, to be led by Vice President Joe Biden, a panel of advisers and four Cabinet members. The Task Force will try to assess the status of the middle class — whether it is growing or shrinking and how well off it is.

— CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report

01/30 10:45 AMShare