4 days ago
NLRB official warns states against moving to regulate labor relations
Aug 15 (Reuters) - A top U.S. National Labor Relations Board official on Friday said proposals in at least three states to regulate private-sector labor relations when the federal board does not have enough members to issue decisions are likely invalid.
NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cowen in a statement, opens new tab said state efforts to oversee private-sector labor disputes would be preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, which gives the NLRB exclusive nationwide jurisdiction.
Cowen also said the current lack of a quorum at the five-member board, triggered by President Donald Trump's unprecedented firing of Democrat Gwynne Wilcox in January, has had little impact on the agency's operations.
Hundreds of cases are pending at the board, which has not issued any decisions since March when Wilcox was briefly reinstated by a federal judge.
Cowen, a career NLRB lawyer, was appointed acting general counsel after Trump also fired General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, an appointee of President Joe Biden.
Lawmakers in New York passed a bill, opens new tab in June to allow a board that hears labor disputes involving state workers to also take up private-sector cases when the NLRB cannot "successfully assert jurisdiction." The bill is under review by Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has been a vocal critic of Trump but has not said whether she supports the proposal.
Similar bills are under consideration in California, opens new tab and Massachusetts, opens new tab.
The U.S. Supreme Court in the 1959 case San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon held that state and local governments cannot regulate conduct that is protected or prohibited by the NLRA.
But the sponsors of the state bills and supporters of the proposals say they are necessary to ensure that workers' labor rights are protected when the NLRB is paralyzed. Without a quorum, the board cannot rule in cases alleging illegal labor practices or issue new interpretations of federal labor law.
But Cowen on Friday said the vast majority of NLRB cases never reach the five-member board. In 2024, only about 40% of complaints filed with the board were found to have merit, and more than 96% of those cases settled, Cowen said.
Cowen said he was confident that once the board has a quorum it will be able to quickly clear the backlog created after Wilcox was removed. Trump last month nominated a career NLRB staffer and the chief labor counsel at Boeing to fill vacancies on the board.
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