The NLRB Faces a Constitutional Crisis
While lecturing others on democracy and human rights, the United States has let its own system for enforcing basic labor protections collapse. Its failure to protect the rights of workers should be an international scandal.
Without judges to hear cases, the NLRB’s enforcement function — already chronically underfunded and understaffed — could collapse nationwide. It should be an international scandal. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP via Getty Images)
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the only federal agency charged with enforcing private-sector workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, is facing a constitutional crisis. On August 19, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the structure protecting NLRB administrative law judges (ALJs) and Board members from presidential removal violates the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Workers’ greatest power has always been in direct action against employers. Legal remedies are just one tool in the broader struggle. Today, with the Board’s enforcement capacity under threat, the importance of shop-floor power is clearer than ever.
What Has Changed?
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), if workers believe their boss has broken the law, they can file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. The local office investigates, and if it finds the case has merit, it takes the employer to trial before an administrative law judge, who then decides the outcome.
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