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National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Attacks On US Labor Rights Should Be An International Scandal

October 11, 2025 Benjamin Dictor, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
The National Labor Relations Board, the only federal agency charged with enforcing private-sector workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, is facing a constitutional crisis. On August 19, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the structure protecting NLRB administrative law judges (ALJs) and Board members from presidential removal violates the Constitution’s separation of powers. Workers’ greatest power has always been in direct action against employers. Legal remedies are just one tool in the broader struggle. Today, with the Board’s enforcement capacity under threat, the importance of shop floor power is clearer than ever.

Answers To Trump’s Anti-Worker Shutdown: Solidarity, Labor Militancy

October 11, 2025 Conor Lynch, In These Times. , , , ,
A palpable sense of dread gripped many federal employees last week as the government inched closer to a shutdown and the Trump administration explicitly threatened to carry out another round of mass layoffs, effectively turning civil servants into bargaining chips. After eight months of periodic purges that began with Elon Musk​’s Department of Government Efficiency, the ​“never-ending nightmare” that federal workers have been through this year shows no signs of waning, with Russell Vought, President Donald Trump​’s budget director, apparently seeing the shutdown as a perfect opportunity to inflict more trauma on ​“deep state” employees. With the shutdown now in full swing, Vought has promised that the White House will begin firing federal employees within ​“a day or two.”

The Fifth Circuit Ruled That The NLRB Is Unconstitutional

August 25, 2025 Matt Bruenig, Portside. , , , ,
For the last year or so, federal district court judges in the Fifth Circuit have been enjoining the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from processing unfair labor practice charges against employers in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. I’ve written a couple of pieces about this including this one in September of last year. Three of these district court cases were consolidated into an appeal that recently went before the Fifth Circuit. Unsurprisingly, the Fifth Circuit, which is dominated by conservatives, endorsed this particular legal theory and upheld the district court decisions enjoining the NLRB from processing unfair labor practice charges against the involved employers. At this point, the practical significance of this ruling is essentially zero.

Workers’ Rights Are Under Attack, Here’s How We Fight Back

July 7, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
July 5 marked the 90th anniversary of the Wagner Act, also known as the National Labor Relations Act, which created the National Labor Relations Board and created mechanisms for workers to expand their rights and protections. Clearing the FOG speaks with longtime labor activist Steve Early about how worker militancy led to the Wagner Act, which was successful in increasing the percentage of unionized workers. Early explains how attacks on workers have weakened the Wagner Act, leading to a sharp decline in unionization. He states that now, "corporate America is moving in for the kill." Early provides insight into ways workers can fight back in the current system.

The National Labor Relations Act Is 90, Under Siege, And Showing Its Age

June 25, 2025 Steve Early, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Ninety years ago this summer, Congress passed legislation hailed at the time and for many years after as “labor’s Magna Carta” The Wagner Act—or, more formally, the National Labor Relations Act—was the product of Depression-era concern about the social and economic effects of industrial unrest manifest in city wide general strikes, factory take-overs, and many violent confrontations between workers trying to form unions and the police or private security forces defending the interests of anti-union employers. The architects of the Wagner Act were New Deal Democrats. They knew that a new national labor policy was needed to promote collective bargaining as a peaceful alternative to such unregulated labor-management conflict.

Want To Stop Trump’s Attacks On The NLRB?

May 11, 2025 Kevin A. Young, Truthout. , , , ,
May Day 2025 in the United States came amid the most aggressive assault on U.S. workers in a century. The federal agencies that provide some minimal protection against corporate power — the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and many more — are being systematically destroyed. On May 1, hundreds of thousands protested at roughly 1,300 actions across the United States. Under the broad theme “Workers Over Billionaires,” they condemned union-busting, austerity, climate destruction, anti-immigrant terror, the U.S.-Israeli genocide, and other facets of the assault.

A Coalition Of Employers Is Asking The Trump Administration To Override The NLRB

April 16, 2025 Lauren Mcferran and Lynn Rhinehart, Portside. , , ,
With the Trump administration implementing a blizzard of anti-worker initiatives on a near-daily basis, it’s difficult to imagine that these early assaults could be only the tip of the iceberg. But President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk may well have far worse plans to attack U.S. workers and labor relations. One little-seen proposal from outside the White House has the potential to upend our entire system of labor relations. It comes from the “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace” (CDW)—an anti-union trade association of several hundred employers and employer associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers.

Unionizing United Healthcare

March 17, 2025 Benjamin Y. Fong, Portside. , , , ,
There were 122 National Labor Relations Board representation elections run in February 2025, and ten involved units of 250 or more eligible voters. Those ten elections, however, involved 74 percent of all eligible voters that month. The highest-profile election was the loss at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Garner, North Carolina, which my colleague Jonathan Rosenblum covers well here. Jonathan and I offer some more in-depth thoughts on what recent news in the world of Amazon organizing means in a recent article in these pages, but in brief: it’s going to be very difficult to make much headway with this company with traditional site-by-site organizing methods.

For Workers, There’s Nowhere To Go

February 22, 2025 Gabriel Thompson, Scheer Post. , , ,
When Connor Hovey began talking to his co-workers at Trader Joe’s in Louisville about forming a union, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. What he didn’t expect was that the campaign would transform from a marathon into a race without a finish line. Two years after Hovey and his co-workers won a union election in Louisville, their fight for union representation remains in limbo. The grocery chain with a progressive reputation filed six objections with the National Labor Relations Board after workers voted 48 to 36 to join Trader Joe’s United, an independent union.

Dark Clouds Gather At The National Labor Relations Board

January 8, 2025 Robert M. Schwartz, Labor Notes. , , ,
On December 10, the five-member board, still under Democratic control, issued a long-awaited decision freeing unions from the most deleterious features of management-rights clauses. The case, Endurance Environmental Solutions, LLC, overruled MV Transportation, a 2019 decree from Donald Trump’s first term in office. MV Transportation created an outrageous presumption that unions which agree to generally worded management-rights clauses intend to give employers a right to change work rules, hours, or other conditions of work without giving prior notice or extending an opportunity to bargain.

Supreme Court Decision In Starbucks Case Will Impact Labor Movement

June 21, 2024 Alexandra Martinez, Scheer Post. , , , ,
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 13 in favor of the Starbucks Corporation in the landmark case Starbucks v. McKinney, a devastating blow to union organizers that narrows the authority of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to seek remedies for terminated union activists.  The case, which marked a significant victory for Starbucks and could hinder future labor organizing, centered on whether the NLRB should have the authority to swiftly issue injunctions under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act aimed at halting employers’ alleged unfair labor practices. “The main reason we submitted the brief was so that the Supreme Court could hear directly from the Starbucks workers who are affected by issues that the court was considering,” said Daniel Rosenthal.

NLRB Accuses SpaceX Of Illegally Firing Workers For Criticizing Elon Musk

January 6, 2024 Mariella Moon, Engadget. , , ,
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against SpaceX, accusing it of unlawfully firing eight employees involved in writing a letter that called Elon Musk's behavior on social media "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment." According to the filing, the company committed an unfair labor practice when it fired the workers for "engaging in protected concerted activity at work." It also accused SpaceX of interrogating at least one employee about the letter, as well as about the identities of their colleagues and the nature of their "concerted protected activity."
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