With Senate Confirmations, Labor Board Set for Democratic Majority

On Wednesday, July 28, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board - Gwynne Wilcox and David Prouty. The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), of which NRMCA is an active member, opposed both nominees. Wilcox, a union attorney, was approved with a vote of 52-47. All Senate Democrats along with Republicans Collins (ME) and Murkowski (AK) voted to confirm her. She will immediately join the Board, filling the currently vacant Democrat seat and bringing the Board to a 3-2 Republican majority. Prouty, general counsel for a large SEIU local, was approved 53-46. All Democrats and Republicans Collins, Murkowski, and Sullivan (AK) voted to confirm him. Prouty will join the Board at the end of August, when Republican member William Emanuel’s term expires.

Once Prouty takes his seat, the Board will have a 3-2 Democrat majority. We will likely see a dramatic change in policy from the Board at that time. As Democratic Chair Lauren McFerran stated, she believed the Trump NLRB appointees took too narrow an approach to labor law and that the law "as it is written now should correctly be read far more broadly in a variety of ways.”

CDW will continue to monitor the Board for any new decisions issued before Prouty takes his seat and the policy changes that are expected to follow.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.