On December 26, 2025, a federal judge in the Eastern District of California granted the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB” or “Board”) bid for a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of recently enacted labor legislation that empowers the California Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) to regulate certain private-sector labor relations in the state. With the injunction, however, the NLRB will retain its jurisdiction as the primary agency responsible for regulating labor relations between most private-sector California employers, unions, and employees.
Background
As we covered here, on September 30, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 288, which authorized PERB to conduct union elections and process unfair labor practice charges involving private-sector employers who previously were only subject to the NLRB’s jurisdiction. AB 288 also expanded PERB’s remedial authority in private-sector labor matters by empowering it to seek injunctions, issue bargaining orders, impose civil monetary penalties, and order parties to binding arbitration if they failed to quickly agree to a collective bargaining agreement. The California legislation followed the enactment of New York’s “NLRB Trigger Bill,” which similarly sought to empower the state labor board to regulate certain private-sector labor relations.
Prior to passage of AB 288, PERB was charged with enforcing the state’s labor law and regulating labor relations for California’s public-sector...
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