The start of the second Trump administration will trigger a partisan shift at the National Labor Relations Board, where the accomplishments of the past four years will become the targets of the next board majority and top agency lawyer.
Soon after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, he’s expected to fire NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, install a new top lawyer on an acting basis, and name Republican board member Marvin Kaplan chair or acting chair. He’ll then fill the two open board seats, which will give GOP members majority control, and name a new general counsel.
Once Trump’s choices are approved by the Senate, the flip-flopping process will begin in earnest.
During the Biden administration, the NLRB handed down about 20 full-board decisions that changed board precedent. Roughly three-quarters of those overturned or modified rulings from the first Trump administration, including precedents for assessing work rules, employee status, severance agreements, and labor law protections for employee misconduct.
The NLRB also created new law with its heavy-weight decisions in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific LLC, which established a novel framework intended to discourage illegal conduct prior to union elections, and Thryv, Inc., which expanded standard board remedies to cover the downstream consequences of unlawful conduct.
In addition, the...
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