On April 24, President Trump named Philip A. Miscimarra as National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairman. Miscimarra was appointed Acting Chairman in January and has been sitting on the board since August 2013 after being approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Miscimarra, a labor and employment attorney, was previously a law partner with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP in Chicago, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School in the Wharton Center for Human Resources. Read more about his extensive career in the NLRB press release here.

Minneapolis-based lawyer Doug Seaton has been placed on President Trump’s short list for one of the two vacant National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seats. Mr. Seaton currently works as a consultant, educating employees on unions. Although he is colloquially known as a “union-buster,” Seaton does not consider himself anti-union. He has stated that unions “have a significant role to play,” but the NLRB has swung too far into pro-union territory, a swing he wants to balance if he receives the nomination.

Read more about Doug Seaton and his extensive experience here.

Five years ago, the Kansas City Star investigated the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers (“Boilermakers”) union and discovered excess spending and lack of accountability by its leaders. In response, union executives cut salaries and expenses, as well as some positions, in a show of making amends. Those amends were short lived, however. In a recent followup to their original investigation, The Star discovered that the Boilermakers have not only returned to their excess spending habits and nepotism, but executive salaries have greatly exceeded levels from 2012, costing union members $3.5m annually.

Read more about this story and the impact it is having on the union and its declining enrollment numbers here.

The Senate Labor Committee has approved the nomination of Alexander Acosta for Labor Secretary. Acosta, who currently serves as the Dean of Florida International University’s law school, has previously served as an assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, as a U.S. Attorney for Florida’s Southern District, and on the National Labor Relations Board. The nomination will now advance to the Senate floor for full consideration.

Please read more about Mr. Acosta at the Wall Street Journal here and in the U.S. Senate press release here.

In November 2009, the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99 union ordered a strike against Fry’s foods in Arizona, a Right to Work state.  During this time, while UFCW did not have a monopoly bargaining contract in effect, almost 800 employees resigned their union memberships and revoked their dues authorizations. UFCW and Frye’s continued to automatically and illegally take dues from these employees anyway. The NLRB sided with the union, but after nearly 10 years of fighting, employees represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund won their case in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Read more about it here.

After a March 4 pro-union rally (discussed in this previous post), Nissan has declined to speak with United Auto Workers (UAW) about their demands. The auto manufacture stated it’s up to the Canton plant’s 6,400 employees to decide if they want a union before any discussions are considered. U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders and NAACP President Cornell William Brooks were among those who attended the rally and had asked Nissan and UAW to discuss a neutrality agreement. Read more about the ongoing situation here.