Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Associated Press
It wasn't a surprise when President Trump fired National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo late Monday. She was a Biden appointee who had used the agency to expand workers' rights.
But Trump went further, also firing Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox in an unprecedented move that will be met with a legal fight.
Due to existing vacancies, Wilcox's ouster leaves the board with just two members, short of the quorum it needs to adjudicate even routine cases. (The board, when fully staffed, has five members.)
With this move, Trump has effectively shut down the NLRB's operations, leaving the workers it defends on their own, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement.
"These moves will make it easier for bosses to violate the law and trample on workers' legal rights on the job and fundamental freedom to organize," she wrote.
While courts have upheld the president's authority to remove the NLRB's general counsel, the National Labor Relations Act states that board members can be removed "for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause."
In a statement, Wilcox called her firing illegal.
"I will be pursuing all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent," she wrote.
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