A number of significant decisions were issued by the National Labor Relations Board in 2012, including many in the final days of the term of member Brian Hayes. As of this writing, the board continues with only three members, all Democratic appointees: Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and members Richard Griffin Jr. and Sharon Block. The recess appointments of Griffin and Block are currently the subject of court challenges on the ground that there was no valid recess when they were appointed. Also subject to court challenges are the NLRB’s rules on the mandatory notice posting of employee rights and expedited representation elections.
Separate and apart from the validity of these two NLRB rules, both of which involved unprecedented NLRB actions, and the recess appointments, the NLRB issued many significant decisions in 2012. Here is my list of the most significant ones, counting backwards from No. 8.
