Catherwood LibraryILR School

The Senate’s confirmation of pro-management attorney William Emanuel returns the National Labor Relations Board to a Republican majority for the first time in nearly 10 years. Once the term of current Republican board chairman, Philip Miscimarra, expires in December, President Trump will then have to nominate another new GOP board member – at which point it seems likely that the statutorily nonpartisan agency will begin an expected reversal of many Obama-era decisions. The board had moved towards partisan activism favoring unions during the Obama presidency, including expanding joint employer liability for affiliated businesses; imposing limitations on how employers can use employment contracts to block workers’ class actions; and reducing the amount of time necessary to form a union. Emanuel’s confirmation comes on the heels of Marvin Kaplan's confirmation in August, who was the second nomination to the NLRB made by Trump - as well as the controversial nomination of Peter Robb to replace general counsel Richard Griffin (D). Robb was the former lead attorney for the Federal Labor Relations Authority during the air traffic controller strike, which then led to the decertification of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Democratic senators were deeply concerned, with Senator Warren (D-Mass) noting that an attorney “who’s never once represented workers” in four decades has “no business at the helm of an agency whose single mission is to encourage collective bargaining.”