The National Right to Work Foundation (NRTWF) is sounding the alarm about a Wednesday Senate vote orchestrated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that aims to restore Democratic and union control of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for the entire To secure President Donald J. Trump’s second administration.
10 a.m., Tuesday, December 10, 2024
The Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Lauren McGarity McFerran of the District of Columbia to serve on the National Labor Relations Board for a five-year term expiring December 16, 2029. https://t.co/7iScGvjuI5…
– U.S. Senate Updates (@SenateFloor) December 10, 2024
From a Dec. 10 NRTWF email to RedState:
According to news reports, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set the stage for a Senate vote tomorrow (12/11) to attempt to confirm National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Lauren McFerran to another five-year term . McFerran is a partisan labor leader who was first appointed to the NLRB by President Obama in 2014 and appointed chairman by President Biden in 2021.
If McFerran is confirmed for another five-year term, Schumer and other allies of Senate union leaders will maintain a pro-Big Labor majority on the board appointed by Biden until then August 2026which would likely suppress any reforms President-elect Trump’s administration might make to protect the right of independent-minded workers to be free from the influence of union bosses.
RedState spoke with NRTWF President Mark Mix about the frantic activity on Capitol Hill and their fight to thwart this vote.
A vote is expected tomorrow on whether or not McFerran gets another five-year term, Mix said. That would likely make her one of the longest-serving NLRB members in America. This will be her third term; So 15 years on the board, which really means a change.
With the added threat of former Oregon Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer as a candidate for Labor Secretary, the U.S. Department of Labor (US DOL) and NLRB’s already contentious relationship with independent professionals, diminutive businesses and franchisors will only get worse The situation will only get worse, and the NLRB will entrench the chaos in employer-employee relations for decades to come.
If Chair Lauren McFerran is confirmed for another 5 years @NLRBThe board will be under the control of Democrats, who are pushing the organized labor agenda through 2026. The Senate should reject this nomination because the future of America’s 800,000 franchises is at risk.
— Franchise Action Network (@FranchiseAction) December 10, 2024
As Mix noted, under the Biden-Harris administration, both the NLRB and the U.S. DOL have enforced their pro-union power mandate over the nation’s workforce. “It changed the definition of an employee, which the Ministry of Labor under Acting Minister Su has already done.”
So if, God forbid, Chavez-DeRemer is confirmed and McFerran is renominated, it would “maintain that philosophy of, hey, we want to put our thumb on the scale and favor union power, not worker power,” Mix said.
A Wall Street Journal dated December 1st Opinion piece said much the same thing about the potential pitfalls of McFerran retaining the NLRB chairmanship.
Donald Trump is vying for Big Labor’s support, but Democrats, as usual, are poised to outbid Republicans. They are seeking to install a pro-union enforcer on the National Labor Relations Board and extend their majority for another year. If Democrats succeed, the agency will continue to address the rights of employers and workers throughout much of Mr. Trump’s term.
The window for Democratic nominations will close when Republicans take control of the Senate in January, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is not sparing any time. “Confirming the NLRB nominees is one of our top priorities,” he said on X last weekend, committing to a vote by the end of the year. The goal is to reconfirm Lauren McFerran, the current CEO and a reliable voice for union coercion.
Mr. Schumer’s sense of urgency is partly a response to Mr. Trump nominating pro-union Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Labor Department. By expanding the NLRB’s pro-union majority, Democrats are following the orders of AFL-CIO leaders.
And right on cue, union stakeholders are eager to see this happen.
The WGAE is pushing @Sen_JoeManchin @lisamurkowski @SenDanSullivan And @SenatorCollins to vote YES for Lauren McFerran to serve another term on the NLRB.
In McFerran, Americans have found someone who will make informed decisions that center workers and their rights in the workplace.
— Writers Guild of America East (@WGAEast) December 10, 2024
McFerran has already waged war on workplace harmony, flipping politics in favor of union bosses and coercive tactics like the infamous Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC case where the NLRB ruled that union bosses can take over a job without giving workers a vote in a secret ballot. Even if there is an election and the union loses that election, the union could manipulate that vote by bringing charges against the employer, as it tried to do at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where it filed unfair labor practice claims and allegations that management and anti-union consultants attempted to intimidate workers.
Biden is seeking to reappoint Lauren McFerran as chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
Their agenda includes steps to make dissatisfied and bad employees unfireable and to force unwilling employees to join unions.
There are few greater threats to American prosperity than such policies. pic.twitter.com/KNwNSNbAlW
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) June 11, 2024
By allowing such tactics, McFerran has given union leaders the unilateral ability to disenfranchise workers who not only don’t want a union, but also want to vote out their current union. McFerran also eliminated workers’ rights to challenge unionization by card check with a secret ballot.
Less than 10 percent of the American workforce belongs to a union, but as Mix warned, “the NLRB is union officials’ primary mechanism of power over workers. We’ve seen that dramatically over the last four years.” So an agency that dictates policy for 10 percent of the workforce has the unchecked power to adversely affect the other 90 percent. This shouldn’t be the case.
Schumer invoked cloture on Monday to avoid any discussions and pushed for the vote on Wednesday. With Republican senators busy trying to build their majority, many were absent from the floor for the vote. Schumer is banking on these absences to confirm McFerran.
Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders are betting on Senate Republican absentees to reconfirm Lauren McFerran, which would bring Trump’s NLRB under Democratic control by August 2026.
Senate Republicans should show up to ensure Republicans control the Trump NLRB. pic.twitter.com/6hM9c1oFep
— Tom Hebert (@TomHebertDC) December 10, 2024
Mix urged all Americans: “Call your senators as often as possible by noon tomorrow (Wednesday); this is important. Trump supporters should be heard here.”
The NRTWF committee also collects Petitions to submit to the senators against this vote.
