House subcommittee hearing spotlights NLRB quorum loss, staffing and independence concerns

The House Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions met to examine the current state of labor law and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), hearing sharply divergent views on the agency’s independence, staffing and its ability to enforce the National Labor Relations Act.

The panel opened with Chairman Rick Allen warning that the prior NLRB had favored unions over employee choice; ranking members and Democratic members defended the board’s role in protecting workers. Jennifer Abruzzo, former general counsel of the NLRB and senior advisor to the president of the Communication Workers of America, told the subcommittee that the board’s independence and its capacity to decide cases have been harmed by the removal of board member Gwen Wilcox and by budget and staffing shortfalls. "Right now, the board can't make, issue any sort of decisions," Abruzzo said,…