White said he’s seen the opposite effect in management. “When you have an agency that is openly pro-union, it makes it difficult for employers to make and enforce decisions that are legal but don’t want to be seen as illegal,” he said.
Kayla Blado, director of the NLRB’s Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, defended the agency’s record under Biden.
“The National Labor Relations Act is a law that protects the rights of workers,” he said, referring to the 1935 measure that created the agency. Abruzzo “supported her workers in vigorously enforcing these protections by educating workers about their rights, employers and unions about their responsibilities, and asking the Board and the courts to enforce the National Labor Relations Act as Congress intended,” she said.
Pendulum swings
“They’ve constantly pushed the envelope of where their authority is,” Ed Egee, who played Bladon’s role at the agency under the Trump administration, said of the current NLRB. “That’s why they’re going to have trouble in the federal courts on some of these issues.”
Board last year left the rule It revived an Obama-era measure that made it easier for franchisees and contractors to go after companies for labor violations. Federal court hit this year and the NLRB refused his application in July. in June, The Supreme Court has decided In a case for Starbucks that tightened the standards for granting injunctions that protect workers from retaliation when organizing.
The a resurgent US labor movement also saw high-profile defeats – especially in the southwhere organizers face higher hurdles and union support is softer. Public support for nationwide associations reaches a record high Organized for the first time last year and reached the number of employees The highest annual level since 2000. still, union membership rates It continued to decline as many non-union workers entered the workforce.
Celine McNicholas, like Blado and Egee, directed the NLRB’s Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, serving under the Obama administration. The Biden-era agency “has in some cases undone the damage of the Trump administration,” he said, but not as aggressively as it has been perceived.
There will be more strikes, more industrial action, or the labor movement will die.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University
“In terms of precedent-setting issues, they didn’t check the boxes,” he said, like Trump-era rules that allow employers to restrict workers’ use of company email to organize and discipline workers in a new union before contract negotiations. McNicholas, who is policy director and senior adviser at EPI Action, part of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute think tank.
As LeRoy sees it, “The Biden NLRB is a direct response to the Trump NLRB.”
In 2019, it overturned 70 years of precedent to give employers more leeway to make mid-contract changes to unspecified rules and policies. As the Trump White House has done with many agencies, it has proposed cutting the NLRB’s budget — which is flat for nearly a decade through fiscal year 2023, keeping pace with inflation — but Congress has refused to do so.
Trump has also overseen a decline in union election filings. “When you know you have a board that is particularly hostile to workers, the logical, sensible thing for organizers to do is, ‘I don’t want this question to come before this board,'” McNicholas said.
What comes next
The labor records of the last two administrations are being scrutinized in the 2024 race.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien He spoke at the Republican National Convention last month. Before becoming Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, visited striking UAW workers last fall, weeks later Biden did the same.
Meanwhile, Harris attracted strong union support After stepping up to lead the Democratic ticket. And both campaigns They compete for black voterswho are more likely to be union members more than any other racial or ethnic group.
Some analysts expect a Harris administration to be more business-friendly More than Biden, others predict continuity. “He’s going to get the job done,” SEIU President April Verrett said in a recent press call.
Regardless of who wins the election, challenges remain before the NLRB. Recent decisions of the Supreme Court, including Overturning 40 years of precedent could weaken the NLRB in a decision that cuts the power of federal agencies.
Egee is currently vice president of government relations and workforce development for the National Retail Federation. amicus brief in that case the result can bring consistency, he said. “Continually changing the NLRB is not good for business stability,” he said.
The agency also faces challenging its constitutionality and executive powers from companies like SpaceX, Trader Joe’s, and Amazon coincide with a broader conservative push to limit the administrative state.
Blado noted that the National Labor Relations Act was found unconstitutional in 1937 and has faced corporate losses for decades.
“While existing challenges require the NLRB to devote scarce resources to defending against them,” he said, “we have found that the results of such challenges are ultimately justice delayed, but justice ultimately prevails.”
Bronfenbrenner said the fate of the NLRB could be pivotal for the labor movement. If his authority weakens, he predicted, “there will be more strikes, more industrial action, or the labor movement will die.” “Either he’s going to be more belligerent or he’s just going to give up.”