Obama fills out slate of labor board nominees

{mosads}“By enforcing workplace protections, upholding the rights of workers and providing a stable workplace environment for businesses, the NLRB plays a vital role in our efforts to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class. With these nominations, there will be five nominees to the NLRB, both Republicans and Democrats, awaiting Senate confirmation.

“I urge the Senate to confirm them swiftly so that this bipartisan board can continue its important work on behalf of the American people,” Obama said in a statement.

Unions echoed the president, and said the Senate should confirm all five nominees, including the two Republicans.

“The package includes individuals who have challenged recent actions by the NLRB and who have views on labor relations matters that we do not agree with. But working people need and deserve a functioning NLRB, and confirmation of a full package will provide that stability,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement.

The NLRB needs at least three members to convene a quorum and take official actions.

Business groups and GOP lawmakers have been fierce critics of the NLRB under Obama. They argue that the labor board has shown favoritism to unions while pursuing onerous workplace rules. 

Business groups have also said that they, too, want a “balanced” labor board.

“While we vigorously disagree with some of the NLRB’s most public decisions, specifically on micro-unions and ambush union elections, we respect the administration’s right to appoint nominees to the board and sincerely hope that the nominees go through regular order so we can learn more about them,” said David French, the National Retail Federation’s senior vice president for government relations.

“NRF supports a lawful, balanced and functional NLRB that upholds its responsibility for fairness and impartiality when it comes to union organizing and elections, and we truly hope that the president’s nominees are not just rubber stamps for one point of view.”

In February, Obama re-nominated Sharon Block and Richard Griffin to the labor board. The two were recess-appointed to the NLRB by the president last year, but that move was ruled invalid by a federal appeals court in January.

The recess appointments for Block and Griffin, as well as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Richard Cordray, came when the Senate was in a pro forma session. Republicans say the pro forma session invalidates Obama’s recess appointments, but the White House says the chamber was not in session.

The House is expected to vote on a bill later this week that could freeze the NLRB in its tracks.

The Preventing Greater Uncertainty in Labor-Management Relations Act would stop the labor board from meeting or issuing rules until its nominees are confirmed or the Supreme Court rules that Block and Griffin’s recess appointments were constitutional.