NLRB nominees fall in U.S. Senate showdown
By MARK GRUENBERG
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI) — Two of
Democratic President Barack Obama’s
five nominees to seats on the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB), pro-
worker board members Richard Grif-
fin and Sharon Block, went down the
drain on July 16 (as this issue was go-
ing to press), victims of a threatened
Senate Republican filibuster. Griffin
and Block, who have sat on the board
for 18 months as temporary recess ap-
pointees, and whom Obama nomi-
nated for full regular terms, “were
thrown under the bus,” Communica-
tions Workers President Larry Cohen
told a July 16 telephone press confer-
ence. He called them “casualties” in
the war against obstructionism.
Nominations to the NLRB are im-
portant because the board’s rulings
govern worker-management relations
for 85 million workers, union and non-
union, and mostly in the private sector.
Without at least three members, the
NLRB can’t function. And the terms of
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Griffin, Block and current NLRB
Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce were
scheduled to end in August. Two other
NLRB seats are vacant.
Sacrifice of the two was part of a
compromise in which the GOP minor-
ity dropped its opposition to Pearce, a
Democrat, and GOP-side labor
lawyers Harry Johnson and Phillip
Miscimarra, plus Obama nominees for
other posts. In return, Majority Leader
Harry Reid, D-Nev., abandoned his
push for a rules change to end all fili-
busters on nominations. Cohen cred-
ited Reid for the hard push and getting
as much as he could.
The Republicans and their business
allies “want their pound of flesh from
working people, and they will get it be-
cause four or five (Senate) Democrats
are with them” against Griffin and
Block, said Cohen, labor’s point man
in the nominations fight.
The nomination of Thomas Perez, a
top Justice Department official nomi-
nated to be Labor Secretary, was part of
the deal, with the GOP supposedly
dropping its opposition to him, too.
But as of mid-afternoon July 16, the
compromise wasn’t quite set, since
votes had yet to occur on any NLRB
nominees or Perez. And Sen. Lindsay
Graham, R-S.C., tweeted that “In South
Carolina, the NLRB is a four-letter
word,” signaling opposition.
News reports said the deal applies
only to the current batch of nominees,
including the five for the NLRB, and
not to future Obama administration
nominees.
The Senate’s apparent decision will
leave the board, at least right now, with
the minimum three members it needs
to operate, but with a 2-1 Republican
majority, until Obama names replace-
ments for Block, a former Labor De-
partment official, and Griffin, longtime
general counsel of the Operating Engi-
neers, and the Senate approves them.
Cohen did not name the defecting
Democratic senators who would not
vote to shut off GOP talkathons against
Griffin and Block, or vote for a rules
change to end filibusters against all
presidential nominees. He said labor
will look forward to Obama’s nomina-
tion of two more NLRB members and
will work hard for quick Senate ap-
proval.
“This is a horror show, to give up
Griffin and Block so the Republicans
can go back to their friends at the
Chamber of Commerce, K Street lob-
byists, and big corporations and show
how they’re blocking enforcement of
labor law. It’s a disgrace,” Cohen said.
“It is a compromise. I think we get
what we want, and they get what they
want,” Reid said. He credited Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.), with brokering the
compromise.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Other union leaders preferred to
hold off commenting on the NLRB sit-
uation, pending a final outcome.
The first nominee caught in the log-
jam, Richard Cordray, the former Ohio
attorney general named to head the new
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau,
went through, 71-29, far more than the
60 votes needed to halt filibusters. Sen.
Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., cast the 60th vote.
The CFPB protects workers and con-
sumers from further predations by fin-
anciers, such as those that caused the
Great Recession.
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