AFL-CIO Opposes Trump’s Appointees to the National Labor Relations Board

The AFL-CIO is fighting to keep two union busters from filling vacant seats on the National Labor Relations Board. On Wednesday, a Senate committee voted to advance President Trump’s two nominees to a full Senate vote.

The national AFL-CIO sent a letter earlier this week to the Senate, urging them to vote against approving Republicans Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel based on their poor track records. Emanuel works at a union-busting law firm and has only ever represented employers, even going on record at his confirmation hearing that he has never once taken on the case of a worker or a union. Similarly astounding, Kaplan has no labor law experience beyond drafting policies to weaken worker protections in the National Labor Relations Act.

If Kaplan and Emanuel are confirmed, the NLRB majority will change to Republican, which is worrying considering how many key issues the Board plans to weigh in on in the coming months. They could also overturn key Obama decisions that benefit low-wage workers and unions. “Neither man said anything at the confirmation hearing to give working people any confidence that they would vigorously enforce the NLRA consistent with the law’s purpose of protecting workers’ right to organize and promoting collective bargaining,” said the AFL-CIO in its letter to the Senate. Read the full letter here.