Democratic Leaders Unite Against Unprecedented and Illegal Firing of National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) joined every Democratic U.S. senator and a bipartisan group of 213 U.S. representatives in urging President Trump to immediately reinstate National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Gwynne Wilcox. Congress created the NLRB nearly 90 years ago as an independent, non-partisan federal agency to protect workers nationwide by enforcing the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which guarantees the rights of workers to collectively bargain, including by organizing unions, negotiating contracts, and going on strike. The lawmakers pointed to specific federal statute that restricts the president’s ability to remove NLRB members for reasons other than neglect of duty or malfeasance. They also clarified that Wilcox’s firing without a hearing or cause expressly violated that law.
“We are writing to express our deep frustration at the unprecedented and illegal firing of National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox and the negative impact this will have on working people across the country,” Peters and the lawmakers said. “This firing violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), renders the Board unable to effectively enforce federal labor law, and profoundly undermines the independence of the agency.”
The lawmakers also called on the president to restore the NLRB’s ability to protect the rights of American workers to organize and collectively bargain, which were already impaired by understaffing at the agency, and are now effectively lost due to lack of quorum on the NLRB.
“Workers rely on the NLRB to safeguard their rights to organize and collectively bargain to better their working conditions,” the lawmakers continued. “However, by firing Member Wilcox and leaving the five-seat NLRB with only two Members, you have left the Board without a quorum and effectively shut down its decision-making ability. This simply encourages bad employers to violate the law and trample on workers’ rights, while workers subjected to illegal union-busting will face significant delays in receiving the justice to which they are entitled.”
“We urge you to reverse your decision and to immediately reinstate Member Wilcox to the NLRB to ensure that working people are afforded the protections to which they are entitled under the law,” concluded Peters and the lawmakers.
Read the full text of the letter here.
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