Good Riddance to a Terrible National Labor Relations Board Head Attorney
The decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board have massive importance for workers’ ability to organize and unionize. So it’s no small development that the board’s terrible pro-management head attorney, Peter Robb, was unceremoniously canned this past week.
Peter B. Robb’s official photo as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. He was fired on January 20, 2021 after refusing to resign. (Photo: NLRB)
On his first day in office, newly inaugurated president Joe Biden sent a letter asking general counsel Peter Robb of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for his resignation — and advising him that if he did not resign, he would be fired.
Robb refused to resign; he was discharged the same day. No other general counsel has been fired in the history of the agency. One was asked to resign, many decades ago.
Many in the labor movement had pushed for Robb’s removal; they cheered. Employers, not so much. But who is Robb, and why does it matter?
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