What about those NLRB nominations?
If you were wondering why you haven’t heard more about James Macy’s nomination to the NLRB, and David Prouty’s nomination to continue as sole Democrat, there’s a good reason. After a few reschedulings, the Senate HELP Committee put them back on the calendar for June 15, 2026.
If this hearing proceeds as scheduled, the HELP Committee will vote on whether Macy and Prouty will be advanced to the full Senate, which is scheduled to go on a month-long recess as of Aug. 10. Let’s hope that these nominees don’t get bumped from the agenda again, or the Board could lose its quorum before Prouty’s current term ends on Aug. 27. But if these votes happen quickly, then the Board could gain its third GOP member, which sets the stage for overturning Abruzzo-era precedent.
Another set of nurses gave their union the boot:
As we’ve discussed, the healthcare organizing victory rate is more complicated than it seems, and slowly but surely, more nurses are finding out that unions are not the solution to what ails this sector.
Such is the case for 191 RNs at UnityPoint Health in Sioux City, Iowa. This month, they officially booted UFCW as their “representative” after gaining legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation. The initial decertification effort was led by a nurse practitioner, and these nurses aren’t alone.
Last year in Minnesota, the National Right to Work Foundation provided legal support to a wave of nursing units who gave the Minnesota Nurses Association the boot at several Mayo Clinic facilities. Following one of those oustings, one worker declared, “The MNA was a very divisive force in our workplace, and I think we’ll be able to better serve our patients and the community without the union.” Hear, hear!
The world’s first gig work treaty has been adopted:
The first thing to know about this story is that the U.S. opted out of the gig work treaty adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The next thing to know is that U.S. companies will still want to read the fine print because the treaty passed 406 to 8, so any U.S. employer with gig/platform workers located in one of those nations will need to anticipate compliance with the treaty, although it’s not enforceable yet.
The ILO Convention needs at least two nations to ratify before the treaty takes effect, and then all ratifying nations will have to pass implementing legislation. In the meantime, employers with these workers should watch which countries start making moves, and some might not ratify the treaty at all, but better safe than need to scramble later for compliance.
On chain pharmacies and supervisor status:
An NLRB regional director made what could be a defining determination in the Pharmacy Guild’s efforts to unionize chain pharmacies across the U.S.
At a CVS store near Las Vegas, a Sept. 2025 representation petition included a unit of 10 workers spanning the entirety of the pharmacy department, and the company sought to declare certain employees as supervisors who should be excluded from the bargaining unit. Those employees include the Staff Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians who are designated as front end supervisors (FSS), yet the Region 28 Director Cornele Overstreet disagreed.
In a decision, Overstreet cited testimony from the store’s Pharmacy Manager, who relayed that the Staff Pharmacist “spends between 33 to 44 percent of her working time on team leadership and management,” including “quarterbacking the team of Technicians, calling the plays, watching workflow, and moving Technicians as needed to make the goal line.” That wasn’t enough to convince the director for supervisor status on the Staff Pharmacist role, let alone the FSS techs. This suggests that retail pharmacies will have a harder time going forward in countering the Machinists-affiliated Pharmacy Guild’s efforts to organize more stores.
A Trump v. Slaughter follow-up:
Following last week’s Supreme Court ruling that allowed President Trump to remove federal agency officials without cause, one fired agency head decided to dismiss her related lawsuit. Ex-EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels issued a statement to that effect while declaring that the Court’s opinion “leaves me without a viable path forward to continue contesting my termination.”
In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court expanded the president’s power over agency officials by doing away with their removal protections, other than providing a narrow carveout for Federal Reserve officials in the Trump v. Cook ruling. Here, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed Samuels’ lawsuit without prejudice, so she could theoretically refile, although the Supreme Court has spoken loud and clear on this separation-of-powers issue.
Also, Trump v. Slaughter did not address the status of dismissed NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, but writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts declared that “our opinion today should not be read” to apply to other agencies, yet it’s all but certain that Wilcox will not return to the Board.
