NLRB leads Biden's prounion agenda

From its earliest days in office, the Biden administration has made clear one of its principal goals is to create more and better union jobs. President Joe Biden took office, however, as private-sector union membership is at an all-time low, and changes in the workforce (e.g., remote work, gig work, temp work, tech work) appear to raise the odds against union organization.

In addition, the administration's ambitious legislative program to aid unions—the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act)—is facing solid business opposition and has not garnered enough support, even among the slim Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, to be enacted on its own or to be included in the massive budget reconciliation bill. Stepping into the breach, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is trying to achieve those goals through agency action.

In August, Abruzzo issued a memorandum (No. 21-04) identifying the many issues she is seeking to review and, by implication, overturn. Aided by a new Democratic majority on the NLRB, Abruzzo is seeking to eradicate many of the Trump Board's rulings, just as the Trump Board eliminated many of the rulings of the Obama Board. In her latest memoranda (No. 21-06 and No. 21-07, issued September 8 and 15, respectively), she is taking an even bolder step, announcing her intention to broadly increase the penalties for employers that violate federal labor law and significantly stiffen settlements. (All three memos can be found at https://bit.ly/3CyGgKD.)

New remedies proposed