by: Adam C. Abrahms, James S. Frank, Kara M. Maciel, and Steven M. Swirsky
President Obama has taken action designed to bolster the National Labor Relations Board’s continuing move to bolster unions and take the National Labor Relations Act further into non-union workplaces. On April 9, 2013, President Obama announced his plan to submit three more nominees to serve the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). If these and the two other pending nominations are confirmed this would bring the NLRB to its full complement of five Members.
These new nominations – who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate – were announced against the backdrop of the NLRB v. Noel Canning decision in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the NLRB now lacks constitutional authority to act because the recess appointments previously made by President Obama in January 2012 were not valid. The NLRB plans to appeal the D.C. Circuit’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court by April 25, 2013.
The three new nominations include the current NLRB Chairman, Mark Gaston Pearce, and two Republicans, Harry I. Johnson, III, and Philip A. Miscimarra, both lawyers in private practice. While Mr. Johnson and Mr. Miscimarra both have represented management over their careers, Chairman Pearce came to the NLRB from a practice representing unions.
Mr. Pearce has served as NLRB Chairman since August 2011, and has been a Board Member since March 2010. Previously, Mr. Pearce, who started his career at the Board’s Buffalo, New York Regional Office in 1979, was a founding partner of Creighton, Pearce, Johnsen & Giroux from 2002 to 2010. Before founding the Creighton, Pearce firm, Mr. Pearce worked as an associate and junior partner at Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria LLP from 1994 to 2002.
Harry I. Johnson, III is a partner with Arent Fox LLP. Previously, Mr. Johnson worked at Jones Day from 1994 to 2010. Mr. Johnson received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, an M.A.L.D. from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Philip A. Miscimarra is a partner with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, a position he has held since 2005. Since 1997, Mr. Miscimarra has also been a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School. Mr. Miscimarra received a B.A. from Duquesne University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
President Obama previously submitted the nominations of Richard F. Griffin, Jr. and Sharon Block, who are currently serving as Board Members but whose recess appointments were struck down as invalid by the D.C. Circuit in Noel Canning. Member Block came to the NLRB from the US Department of Labor. Both of those nominations are before the Senate.
WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO NOW
Considering that all five nominations must now be confirmed by the Senate, where the Republican minority has frequently blocked the President’s nominations, it is unclear how and when the Senate will respond, and whether the NLRB will enjoy a full complement of Members in order to conduct lawful business any time soon. Merely announcing the nominations will not pave the way immediately for a full, validly appointed NLRB. Indeed, it may not be until the next Congress, following the 2014 mid-term elections that the Senate even considers a package deal with the White House.
If a compromise could be achieved and all five Members were sworn-in this year or next, the Board would continue with a liberal, union-friendly majority with Chairman Pearce and Members Griffin and Block. They could be expected to continue a pro-union agenda, which would certainly bring continued aggressive enforcement and further broadening of the Board’s view of protected, concerted activity and the Act’s application in non-union workplaces. Moreover, there will be many questions about whether a new NLRB will be able to cure prior decisions that were put into doubt by Noel Canning.
For now, our advice and recommendations to employers remains the same as following the ground-breaking decision of Noel Canning. Employers should closely monitor how courts in their jurisdictions decide similar cases challenging the recess appointments, and watch how the Supreme Court will address it next term, should it take the NLRB’s petition for certiorari, while watching to see what happens in the Senate.