Employer Coalition Sends Letter To Congress Opposing NLRB Chair's Renomination
Under McFerran's tenure as Chair, the NLRB "has been riddled with mismanagement of the agency and radical and expansive interpretations of the NLRA," says group.
By Peter List, Editor | June 14, 2024
A group of employer organizations sent a letter to Congress this week expressing concern over “the recent re-nomination of Lauren McFerran to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) due to her tenure on the Board, which has been riddled with radical and expansive interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), as well as the ill-natured timing of the nomination.”
President Biden re-nominated National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran for a third term at the agency in late May.
As McFerran’s term does not end until December, the move “could cement Democratic control of the agency even if Biden is unseated by Republican challenger Donald Trump in November,” Reuters noted.
The letter (in full here) was addressed to the U.S. U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (“HELP”) and House Subcommittee on HELP, and was written by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) and co-signed by 25 trade organizations. It cites a number of issues regarding McFerran’s leadership at the independent labor agency.
“McFerran’s tenure on the Board has been riddled with mismanagement of the agency and radical and expansive interpretations of the NLRA,” the letter notes. Further, her policy choices have been repeatedly rejected by Congress and struck down by federal courts.”
The letter goes on to cite a number of the NLRB’s decisions that affect all employers, including the Cemex decision, which “effectively makes ‘card check’ the default process for determining whether workers want union representation in the workplace.”
“Card check is notoriously flawed, exposing workers to harassment, intimidation, and coercion,” the CDW explains.
The CDW also cites the NLRB’s decision in Home Depot “that forces employers to permit political activity in the workplace to the potential detriment of the professionalism and safety of the workplace.”
McFerran has served on the NLRB since 2014 and, though the U.S. Senate re-confimed her (53-42) in 2020 as a member of the NLRB, she only became chair of the agency in 2021, after President Biden took office.
It remains unclear, due to the timing of the re-nomination in an election year, whether the Senate will re-confirm her, or whether the Senate will hold off until after the November elections.
