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Last Friday, attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, filed a motion asking the board to overrule an unfair labor practice case from 1970 called Ex-Cell-O Corp. The goal? Create a penalty for employers who stall the collective bargaining process, so they have to pay employees the wages they presumably would've collected—but lost out on—because of the delay. 

This is a far cry from the penalty the NLRB can currently impose on employers who stall contract negotiations: simply ordering the employer to start bargaining. It's a system workers' advocates say has long been inadequate, since it gives employers no real incentive to comply with the law. But attorneys representing employers say in deciding to overturn a decades-old precedent now, the board needs to consider how a shaky economy could make it tough for the board to suss out appropriate financial penalties—and risk overstepping its authority.