During the first Obama administration, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) became the major nemesis for union and nonunion employers alike. With Congress stalemated, the administration was largely shut out from passing new worker-friendly laws. With the exception of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Congress added no significant new labor and employment laws to the books during Obama’s first term. This frustrated unions, which had hoped a Democratic administration would propel the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and other pro-union legislation.
So attention turned to the agencies, especially the NLRB, where the president appointed an activist acting general counsel and pro-union board members. The board proposed union election rules that incorporated the goals of the EFCA by speeding up the election process and a regulation requiring posting of a notice in all workplaces alerting workers to their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. The acting GC took an active interest in curtailing employer control of employees’ use of social media. And he stirred up a hornet’s nest by threatening to force Boeing to move production from a new plant in the right-to-work state of South Carolina to the state of Washington, where most of its workers are unionized—a case that later settled, but not without incurring lasting wrath from the business community and legislators.
