In the aftermath of President Donald Trump removing National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Gwynne Wilcox, the agency is effectively hamstrung, unable to adjudicate cases without a quorum. The situation has sparked debate in Congress concerning the NLRB’s promotion of fairness and transparency, and more broadly, on the state of unions and collective bargaining practices in the U.S.
During a hearing June 11, Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., chairman of the House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee, said, “It is time for the Board to champion the right of employees to pick the union, not of the union to pick the employees.” Allen also expressed concerns about union elections and called for the NLRB “to refocus on resolving workplace conflicts instead of punishing business owners.”
The first topic discussed was worker choice in electing union representation. “The National Labor Relations Act [NLRA] is fundamentally about employee free choice,” said Aaron Solem, an attorney for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Employees have the right to choose union representation or to reject it, Solem said, and the NLRB is duty-bound to remain neutral with regard to that decision.
“But over the past four years, the Biden NLRB has severely tilted the playing field in favor of union officials,” Solem said, which in his view invalidated the opinions of workers who opposed unionization. To ensure fairness, Solem...
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