What to Expect from the NLRB

by Mike Eastman

Over the weekend, President Obama gave recess appointments to Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to serve as Members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). They will join Current Democratic Chairman Wilma Liebman and Republican Member Peter Schaumber. We’ve written before about the Chamber’s opposition to Mr. Becker’s nomination, but now are receiving many inquiries about what the appointments mean to the business community. Now that the NLRB has an undisputed quorum and Democratic majority, what will be the  agenda?

Last fall, anticipating such an outcome, the Chamber published a report, The National Labor Relations Board in the Obama Administration: What Changes to Expect, in which we summarize more than 50 NLRB decisions that we believe are most likely to be reversed by the current NLRB. While some of these cases are high profile, such as Dana/Metaldyne that effectively gives employees notice before a union and an employer  can circumvent the law’s secret ballot process for union recognition, others are much less well know. However, reversal of these technical rules, such as whether permanent strike replacement workers may be hired on an at-will basis, as discussed in Jones Plastics and Engineering Co., collectively will increase union leverage in every aspect of labor-management relations