Labor Board in Limbo

The article “Labor Board in Limbo” in the June 2013 issue of InsideCounsel included a quote from Tampa Partner Steve Bernstein. The article recalled the controversy surrounding three board members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) appointed by President Barak Obama during a congressional recess. A January 2013 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that the president acted in violation of the Constitution and the five-member NLRB did not have the required quorum to make decisions. Two of these appointees still sit on the NLRB along with three other members, all of whom are Democrats. The President’s renomination of the two members, Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, is currently pending before the Senate, leaving a cloud of uncertainty.  Steve said:  "It's fair to assume that the Republicans will continue to fight the candidacies of Block and Griffin.  As long as that continues, we will see deadlock that at some point will have to break, or the agency will be paralyzed because it is reluctant to tackle weighty issues until this gets resolved. That hurts both sides [labor and business] by creating uncertainties about a law that is not user-friendly anyway."