For much of 2025, the NLRB has been handicapped due to lack of a quorum following Trump’s firing of Gwynne Wilcox that the Supreme Court okayed pending further proceedings. During this chaos, the Board has been unable to resolve unsettled disputes involving ULPs, leaving employers without guidance. Will that limbo come to an end? Perhaps.
Presumably, Trump’s upcoming version of the Board will be more employer friendly with David Prouty being presumed to remain the lone Democratic member alongside GOP-leaning Chair Marvin Kaplan. Bloomberg is now reporting (paywall) that the Trump administration announced two new nominations for terms running through 2027 and 2029:
- James Murphy: An ex-NLRB attorney who began his law career as a Board clerk back in the 1970s, Murphy has remained close to the Board for his entire career and served as chief counsel to Kaplan.
- Scott Mayer: Currently Boeing Co.’s chief labor counsel, he has spent time working for Aramark, MGM Resorts International, and Big Law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.
Should these two nominees survive Senate confirmation, the Board will have satisfied the three-member requirement to issue rulings.
Be warned that the process might not be as easy as imagined, even with a Republican-majority Senate. Earlier this week, Trump’s nominee for general counsel, Crystal Carey, experienced choppy waters during a pre-Senate confirmation hearing wherein GOP Sen. Josh Hawley criticized her record, including her opposition to the NLRB’s proposed ban on so-called “captive audience meetings.”
Hawley’s pushback might sound surprising from a GOP senator, but it’s consistent with his proposed Pro-Labor Framework that would include such a ban, which critics say would run afoul of the First Amendment.
We’re halfway through 2025, and still, nothing is predictable in federal labor law, but maybe, just maybe, there might be a quorum on the horizon.
