The National Labor Relations Bored. And no, that wasn’t a typo.

The National Labor Relations Bored

And no, that wasn’t a typo.

The five-person NLRB set forth in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 is currently down to one acting member – Democrat David Prouty.  If he isn’t “bored,” he should be.

The NLRB can only act when it has a quorum of three members.  So right now, it is powerless.  What Mr. Prouty is doing, I could only guess.

The Board began to dwindle when Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, was fired by President Trump.  She sued, was temporarily reinstated for a few days, then an appeals court reversed the trial court and she has been off the Board since.

There were only three members before Ms. Wilcox’s exit – Wilcox, Prouty, and Republican Marvin Kaplan.  So after Wilcox left, there were two.

Kaplan’s term expired in late August, hence there is now only one Board member – and thus was the title inspired for this blog.

There is still a lot of Board business going on because the 26 regional directors retain the power to act within the requirements of the Act and current binding precedents.  The regions are receiving and processing election petitions (R cases) and allegations of unfair labor practices (ULPs, C cases).  

But currently, if a party is dissatisfied with a NLRB administrative law judge’s decision in a case, the Board doesn’t have the required quorum to hear the appeal.  The parties will either accept the ALJ’s decision, settle between themselves and withdraw the case, or an appeal will join the significant backlog of cases that the Board always has.

In late July, President Trump appointed Scott Meyer and James Murphy to fill two seats on the Board.  Meyer was Boeing’s chief labor counsel and Murphy is a long-time NLRB lawyer with a career of advising Republican Board members.  Both are management-side lawyers and Republicans.  They must be confirmed the Senate before they are qualified members of the Board.

If confirmed, the Board will then have the required three members for a quorum to do its business – one Democrat (Prouty) and the two new Republicans.  That will still leave the Wilcox and Kaplan vacancies open.

Typically, the Board would be made up of three Republicans and two Democrats during a Republican presidential administration.  Time will tell how this Board will shape up.

To make sure your company’s leaders are up to date on all things pertaining to labor and employee relations, reach out to Gary Kleckner from MARC ph# 216-973-7323 and see how MARC's suite of programs can help you as it has helped thousand of others for nearly five decades.  I promise you won’t be bored if you do.