After nearly a year of interim leadership and inactivity at the top adjudicative level at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Agency is back on track. Recently, the Senate confirmed the President’s nominees, Scott Mayer and James Murphy, to fill two empty Board seats as well as Crystal Carey to lead the Agency as its new General Counsel.
The Board is composed of five members appointed by the President with Senate confirmation. Since January of this year, the Board lacked a quorum and was unable to issue decisions enforcing the National Labor Relations Act. Prior to January, the Board had three members, led by a union-friendly majority including veteran union lawyers Gwynne Wilcox and David Prouty. However, the President’s removal of Wilcox soon after taking office left only two members: former Chairman Marvin Kaplan and member Prouty, which rendered the Board unable to fulfill its primary function of setting federal labor law and policy through adjudicative decision-making. Kaplan’s term ended on August 27, 2025, which then left the Board with only one sitting member until last week.
The confirmation of Mayer and Murphy returns the necessary quorum for issuing Board decisions.
What We Know About the New Board Members
We previously reported here that regardless of politics and political affiliations, it is undeniable that both new Board members bring substantial traditional labor experience to the Board. Mayer, former Chief Labor Counsel for a major global...
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