Labored Relations: Law, Politics, and the Nlrb--A Memoir

Focused more on Washington political in-fighting than on labor issues (Beltway junkies will be drawn to it for that reason), this memoir begins on a heartwarming note about Gould's great-grandfather's pride in having served the U.S. Navy in the Civil War, where the battle for free labor was originally won. Because he believes that his own democratic championing of ""the rights and obligations of both labor and management"" as chair of the National Labor Relations Board from 1994 to 1998 is essentially a continuation of the selfless service his forefather gave, the author returns repeatedly to this theme. Deliberate and dignified, yet undeniably defensive, Gould shares, in great detail, the behind-the-scenes wrangling that took place during the heated nine-month approval process for his chairmanship, followed by the continued wrangling that marked his term. From the baseball strike, the battle over Proposition 226 (""what the Republicans called `paycheck protection,' but it was actually designed to cripple the financial relationship between the trade union movement and the Democratic party"") to the Detroit newspaper controversy, political disputes are, Gould says, partly to blame for the increasing logjam in NLRB cases. An African-American who teaches at Stanford University's Law School and an avowed Democrat, Gould exhibits a particular partisanship (""the Republicans in the one hundred and sixth [Congress are] simply interested in reversing progress."") in this otherwise thorough and engaging look at government in action. (Nov.)