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NLRB still has only three Members
October 14, 2005 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

I'm unhappy with the President and the Senate for not appointing and confirming a full five-Member NLRB.

The public deserves better. So do employers, employees, and labor unions.

• It is not difficult to find highly qualified and easily confirmable people.


• Republicans should be outraged.


• Employers should be outraged.


• Unions should be delighted.


• The general public should be, at the very least, disappointed.

Perhaps I should be quiet. After all, limping along with only three Members, the Board has decided about the same number of cases as it did with five. See NLRB Reports on Case Production in FY 2005. But all that means is that they have churned out decisions. The bulk were routine, and not difficult.

Meanwhile, two things:

• No important cases will get decided with a three-Member Board. They will put these cases on hold. The backlog might not grow in numbers, but it will be larger in importance.
• No important change in policy will happen with a three-Member Board. (See NLRB Reversals During the Bush Administration.) There is an unwritten rule that it takes three votes to change policy. We have two Republicans and one Democrat, and it will take three Republicans to get any big changes.

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