On Monday evening, the Senate finally confirmed President Trump’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Now Republicans have a majority control of the 5-member board, which makes rules regarding labor policies and union activates.
With a close late-night vote in the Senate, of 49-47, William Emanuel was confirmed as the newest Republican member of the NLRB. The NLRB is supposed to oversee, and ensure fair labor practices, and enforce collective bargaining laws, but under the Obama administration, it was the subject of unconstitutional power grabs, and explicit anti-worker policies.
William Emanuel is a labor lawyer with the law firm of Littler Mandelson in Los Angeles. He is the second nominee to be confirmed on the board, after Marvin Kaplan’s confirmation this past August. Under the Obama administration, the NLRB aggressively pushed unionization on workers and industries, under the strategy that nearly all national level unions are major donors to Democratic politicians. Deploying a false rhetoric of “workers’ rights” and “fair labor practices,” Obama’s NLRB systematically eliminated worker’s choice to unionize, forcing unionization on many industries and workers, even when extensive polling of laborers showed that none wanted to unionize.
Now, with a Republican majority in the NLRB, many of the harmful Obama-era regulations are expected to be overturned in short order. The newly aligned board is expected to reverse the ruling that sorted what constitutes of a joint-employer and made a franchisor responsible for labor law violations that were committed by the franchisees, along a ruling that allowed unions to exist in companies even after they have been voted out by the laborers.
In a statement, Terry Kovacs, labor policy expert for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that Emanuel will be an, “outstanding addition” to the board. He said, “It’s essential that the NLRB start to undo the harm caused during the Obama administration, when the board put out numerous job-killing decisions and rules that weaken worker choice,” he said.
“Top priorities of the NLRB should include: overturning the joint employer decision, which exposes large and small businesses to near-unlimited liability, and rescinding the union ‘ambush election’ rule that threatens worker privacy, “It’s essential that the NLRB start to undo the harm caused during the Obama administration, when the board put out numerous job-killing decisions and rules that weaken worker choice … Top priorities of the NLRB should include: overturning the joint employer decision, which exposes large and small businesses to near-unlimited liability, and rescinding the union ‘ambush election’ rule that threatens worker privacy,”
Upon the successful vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reminded his democratic colleges that the NLRB is supposed to be a neutral umpire on labor disputes – not a partisan political branch of the democratic party. He said, “For more than 80 years, the NLRB has been responsible for the impartial resolution of labor disputes and for ensuring stable labor relations … Under the board majority appointed by the Obama administration, however, the NLRB moved from fair administrator of the law to partisan activist — one that put left-wing ideology, deep-pocketed union bosses and other special interest friends ahead of middle-class workers.”
With a new majority, McConnell said the board can now begin to undo the “severe damage” that has been done to working class laborers, in service of the Democrat’s union boss donors.
