Union
President Joe Biden is forcing out two Trump-era counsels from the National Labor Relations Board, the first time in more than 70 years a president has exercised that power over the agency.
I wonder why it’s been so long. Republicans are not what you’d call pro-labor.
National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb, a Trump appointee, was fired Wednesday after refusing a request from Biden to step down from his post. On Thursday, Biden asked for the resignation of Robb’s replacement, Deputy General Counsel Alice Stock, by 5 p.m. or said she would be dismissed.
Robb’s dismissal — hailed by union officials and their Democratic allies, who blame him for what they say is a pro-management turn in the labor board — marked the first time a president has removed the top lawyer at the NLRB since Harry Truman did so in 1950.
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Robb promoted Stock to deputy general counsel in 2019. Before joining the NLRB, she was a management-side attorney representing businesses in collective bargaining disputes and unfair labor practice charges.
Labor is already the underdog, so how about getting people in who are on the labor side instead of the management side?
Robb’s removal before his term was set to end in November follows criticism from Democrats over the direction the board took under President Donald Trump. Democrats have also raised concerns over Robb’s moves to reorganize some of the board’s regional offices and new guidelines for agency investigations.
Organized labor had long opposed Robb, who also previously served as a management-side attorney and is known for kicking off the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s case to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization following the 1981 strike.
Organized labor would prefer someone pro-labor as opposed to pro-management. Shocking.
Members of the labor movement hailed the news of Robb’s forced exit as evidence that Biden’s was following through on his campaign promises to be a fierce advocate for labor rights.
Well good on him. Not such a conservative Dem as I thought.
A top House Democrat called it “a major victory for American workers.”
Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, said Robb “has consistently neglected his statutory duty to uphold workers’ right to stand together and negotiate for better working conditions.”
But anti-union groups and Republicans slammed the decision as divisive and “unprecedented.”
Well they would, wouldn’t they. Racists don’t like anti-racist moves, anti-union groups don’t like pro-labor moves.
It would probably be of great benefit to America to just fire all Trump appointees in every department over which Biden has oversight. Granted, a small number of them could be decent employees that just happen to be conservative, but I think on balance they tend towards destructive and crazy.
There have been quite a few firings already — the asshole Trump put in charge of Voice of America was actually escorted out by security.
I don’t know if Biden is going to keep this up for the full term, but it’s a good start. I think they came in with a plan to hit hard and hit fast. Both the mainstream media and the conservative outrage machine can’t keep up with a dozen “controversies” at once. Six months from now, we’ll be back to putting everything under the microscope, with in-depth coverage of whether the Deputy Assistant Undersecretary for Somethingorother sent a bad tweet, and moves like this will spark endless chin-scratching pieces from even supposedly liberal media. But now? Between the inauguration, Trump’s pardons and other 11th-hour shit, the insurrection attempt fallout and the upcoming Senate trial, Cabinet confirmations, COVID, legislative proposals, executive orders, and personnel moves… there’s a lot going on.