The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted 3-0 to vacate their decision in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd. and Brandt Construction Co., 365 NLRB No. 156 (2017) on the basis that the Board’s Designated Agency Ethics Official determined Emanuel should have been disqualified from participating in the Hy-Brand proceeding. Emanuel did not participate in the vote.

As a result of this vote, the overruling of the Board’s decision in Browning-Ferris Industries, 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015) is no longer in effect.

Will this mean the return of Obama era joint-employer?

Read the press release here.

Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo recently got into an argument with Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global Union, over President Trump’s tax cuts and policies for workers. Jennings claimed the President is “stacking the odds against working people coming together and getting a collective voice” while Bartiromo accused Jennings of “demonizing American workers who don’t belong to unions who are happy in their jobs.”

After the debate, the question remains: Is Jennings advocating for workers, or is he mad that American workers don’t want trade unions? You be the judge. Read The Western Journal‘s summary of the debate and watch the video here.

Union membership has remained stagnant in 2017, according to a January 19 report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Unions remained at 10.7%, adding only 262,000 members over 2016. In contrast, union participation rates were 20.1% in 1983, when union data was first compiled. Data was collected from a Current Population Survey of 60,000 eligible households.

New York state had the highest rate of union participation at 23.8% and South Carolina had the lowest at 2.6%. Union member rates for public-sector employees (34.4%) remained five times that of private-sector employees (6.5%) and, as in previous years, men were more likely to be union members than women (11.4% vs 10%).

Read the full BLS press release, including additional related statistics, here.

Labor Secretary Acosta’s cautious approach to dismantling Obama-era policies has led to rumors that he is using the position to bide his time while he waits for a judgeship nomination, possibly eyeing an appellate bench as a pathway to the Supreme Court. Rumors of his judgeship aspirations are not new, following along with him through a prestigious career that has included legal appointments under President Bush. A recent Bloomberg article, which interviewed friends and associates of Acosta, also seems to point to that belief.

Acosta, a former US Attorney and law school dean, as well as a long-time member of the Federalist Society, checks many of the boxes that would make him a desirable judge candidate. His age of 49 would also mean that he could hold his position for decades. It is unknown if the White House has Acosta on its radar for any judicial positions, but a source close to Acosta credits Acosta’s choice of keeping a low profile during his first year in office to the  delays in confirming DOL personnel.

Read more about the speculations here.

President Trump has named Marvin E. Kaplan as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), replacing Chairman Philip A. Miscimarra, whose term expired on December 16, 2017. Kaplan was sworn in as a Board Member in August 2017, for a term ending in August 2020.

Prior to his NLRB appointment, Chairman Kaplan had a prestigious career, serving as Chief Counsel to the Chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, as counsel for the House Committee on Oversight Government Reform, and as policy counsel for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Read the full NLRB press release here.

The National Labor Relations Board has voted to overrule Browning-Ferris guidelines for joint-employer liability established in 2015. Going forward, under the standards held prior to the Browning-Ferris ruling, “two or more entities will be deemed joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) if there is proof that one entity has exercised control over essential employment terms of another entity’s employees (rather than merely having reserved the right to exercise control) and has done so directly and immediately (rather than indirectly) in a manner that is not limited and routine.”

Chairman Philip A. Miscimarra, and Members Marvin E. Kaplan and William J. Emanuel provided the majority opinion.  Members Mark Gaston Pearce and Lauren McFerran dissented.

Read the full press release here.