President Trump’s actions in the past week have temporarily paralyzed the National Labor Relations Board. It’s the only federal agency that protects the rights of private sector workers to organize and pursue collective bargaining in the United States. The agency is led by a five member Board that makes final administrative rulings on unfair labor practice activity and issues make whole remedies for statutory violations.
In the past week President Trump fired three top officials at the Board. He fired NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and then acting GC Jessica Rutter.
And he also fired Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the Board, on the eve of Black History Month. Trump’s firing of Wilcox is illegal and unprecedented under the National Labor Relations Act, which only allows a president to remove a board member for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”
Trump’s removal of Wilcox mirrors attacks on anti-segregationist and anti-racist initiatives at other agencies in the federal government. “As the first Black woman board member, I brought a unique perspective that I believe will be lost upon my unprecedented and illegal removal,” Wilcox said in a statement. “I will be pursuing all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent.”
Trump removal of Wilcox deprives the NLRB of a quorum. Without a quorum, the Board cannot issue final decisions on unfair labor practice complaints pursued on behalf of workers and unions. This leaves statutory violations unremedied. Board decisions impact on the labor rights of tens of millions of workers in the private sector, whether they’re in a union or not.
Major decisions
In 2023 Cemex case, the NLRB ruled that employers must recognize and bargain with workers who file for an election if that employer breaks the law in the run-up to the election.
In the Thryve, Inc. the Board ruled that workers who are victims of labor law violations must be compensated for all “direct or foreseeable pecuniary harm” suffered as a result of unfair labor practices committed by an employer.
Late last year the Board ruled captive audience meetings illegal. Employers use these meetings to try to dissuade workers from unionizing. The Board found that employers violate the law when they threaten discipline or discharge to coerce workers to attend these meetings where the employer expresses its views on unionization.
Guild leaders across the U.S. have numerous pending unfair labor practice charges and complaints against multiple employers, including the ongoing ULPs against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which the Board found had violated federal law by imposing changes to terms and conditions of employment without bargaining in good faith.
Trump campaigned on promises to support America’s workers, but his actions at the NLRB gutted worker rights by depriving the NLRB of a quorum and removing top lawyers with deep agency expertise who defended the agency’s mission to support workers.
At the same time Trump has empowered Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, to send threatening and legally dubious emails to more than 2 million federal workers, pushing them to resign. Musk’s SpaceX joined Amazon in challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB in federal court last year. Congress created the NLRB as an independent agency nearly a century ago to safeguard employees’ rights to organize and collectively bargain.
The lack of a Board quorum will not slow down elections administered by the NLRB. Workers and unions can still file unfair labor practice charges. The Board’s regional offices will continue to investigate those charges, determine whether they have merit and, when necessary, issue a complaint to be heard by an administrative law judge who will issue a decision upholding the law. But if those decisions are appealed, the lack of a Board quorum brings the process to a halt. Workers who have been victimized by their employer’s illegal behavior will be left waiting for justice from an agency deliberately stripped of its power to deliver it.