National Labor Relations Board Union

We, the employees of the NLRB, are calling on members of Congress to reject the Senate’s proposed funding deal unless it includes meaningful reforms for ICE and CBP’s operations.

Our Union has never endorsed a government shutdown before. But we believe we have no other choice.

We see our years-long fight to fairly fund the NLRB and provide the best services to the public as intertwined with the struggle to protect civil liberties in Minneapolis and elsewhere. It is this feeling of solidarity that compels us to call on Congress to reform ICE and CBP.

But the time for action by Congress was yesterday. We are not willing to wait multiple weeks and news cycles while this Administration tries to run out the clock on public outrage. There will never be a better opportunity to enact serious reforms to ICE and CBP than there is now.

We do not make this demand lightly. After years of underfunding that has depleted the NLRB’s staff, we are working through massive case backlogs. The last shutdown imposed significant hardship on our members and another would do the same. Agency morale has never been lower.

Our membership is also devastated by the murder of Alex Pretti, a fellow federal employee and union member as a VA nurse. We see ourselves in his dedication to civil service and mourn the tragedy of his execution. We cannot protect federal workers without rejecting this violence.

Our members in Minneapolis have been thrust into the turmoil of ICE and CBP’s operations and have seen their work impacted by that presence in the city over the last several weeks. Our jobs are made far more difficult by this chaos; it shatters the public’s trust in government.

Under the current tactics of ICE and CBP, none of us are safe. Fundamental rights to life, liberty, and livelihood are under attack. Our Union believes it has a moral imperative to take a stand against the havoc that DHS is purposefully wreaking on our members’ communities.

We, the employees of the NLRB, are calling on members of Congress to reject the Senate’s proposed funding deal unless it includes meaningful reforms for ICE and CBP’s operations.

Our Union has never endorsed a government shutdown before. But we believe we have no other choice.

So, to the people behind this proposal: you can have a funded and staffed NLRB which dutifully carries forth the intent of your bill, or you can pass a law that accomplishes nothing, with no one around to implement the changes you seek. You cannot have both.

So… fund the NLRB!

Where does the NLRB stand right now? It is shut down and inoperable, with no one enforcing labor law. Even when the agency reopens, we are operating under a hiring freeze and facing proposals to slash our budget.

This cannot be reconciled with the aims of yesterday’s hearing.

The most easy and impactful thing that any politician can do right now to protect workers’ labor rights is to advocate for increased hiring and funding for the NLRB. Any legislative proposals that aim to strengthen the law’s protections will require more personnel to do the job.

If parties are seriously seeking to “fix” labor law, any proposal must factor in that the agency tasked with enforcing the law needs the manpower and resources necessary to adequately protect workers.

Who will investigate charges? Gather evidence? Prosecute violations?

The proposed bill would impose a time limit in which unions and employers must reach a collective bargaining agreement. Alleged violations of these bargaining requirements would be investigated by the NLRB.

The same NLRB that is already dramatically understaffed and underfunded.

The Senate held a hearing yesterday on the topic of Labor Law Reform. Some witnesses testified in favor of a bill that proposes to make first contracts easier to reach between unions and employers.

But hovering over this hearing was the NLRB and its staffing and funding crises.

Our Union’s members are doing their best to secure justice for workers. But if Congress continues to tell us to do more with less, we will continue to lose staff to burnout and the crisis will deepen.

This cut must be reversed. The NLRB needs MORE funding, not less.

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Ironically, the Senate is now seeking data about staffing levels at the Agency. But you don’t need a data report to know that the NLRB is drastically under-staffed – Senators can simply ask any worker in their state that’s filed a case before the NLRB over the past several years.

$5 million may not seem like a lot, but after a decade of flat funding, the NLRB was on the verge of furloughing staff. It took almost a decade of fighting for the agency to receive even a modest increase in 2023. And the Senate now appears willing to gut this progress entirely.

If Senators really cared about the ongoing delay of justice for workers who have been the victims of unfair labor practices and other violations of federal labor law, they would not vote to cut the budget of the only agency with authority to remedy these wrongs. Full stop.

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As the Senate leaves town in recess, the Senate’s Appropriations Committee approved a $5 million cut to the National Labor Relations Board’s budget.

This comes less than a month after Senators, on a bipartisan basis, expressed their alarm over the ever-growing backlog of cases at the NLRB.

Members of our Manhattan, Newark, and Brooklyn locals are distributing flyers today at NYU’s Conference on Labor & Employment Law, where Acting General Counsel Cowen is speaking on “The Future of the NLRA.”

The future of labor law is our Agency and our members. Save the NLRB.

Members of our Manhattan, Newark, and Brooklyn locals are distributing flyers today at NYU’s Conference on Labor & Employment Law, where Acting General Counsel Cowen is speaking on “The Future of the NLRA.”

The future of labor law is our Agency and our members. Save the NLRB.

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OMB THREATENS LAYOFFS AT THE NLRB

According to Bloomberg, OMB has directed the NLRB to “think creatively” about how to reduce staff, despite President Trump’s appointed leaders of the agency agreeing that ANY job losses would devastate our ability to enforce federal law.

White House Pushed Job Cuts at Agency That’s Clashed With Musk The White House is privately urging the federal labor board to reduce staff, despite pushback by Trump-appointed officials warning that further cuts would imperil the agency's functions.

Link to Bloomberg’s reporting: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

As we warned, the NLRB is already deeply understaffed. We have no fat to trim. Any reductions would critically impair our ability to enforce the NLRA. Workers WILL suffer.

And by the way: neither DOGE nor OMB has any legal authority to order layoffs. That’s the NLRB’s decision.

What’s more, we’ve learned that DOGE has requested and gained access to NLRB employees’ personal email addresses. Why would DOGE need this if they are not considering layoffs?

This is a five-alarm red alert for anyone who cares about labor rights. WE ARE UNDER ATTACK.

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OMB THREATENS LAYOFFS AT THE NLRB

According to Bloomberg, OMB has directed the NLRB to “think creatively” about how to reduce staff, despite President Trump’s appointed leaders of the agency agreeing that ANY job losses would devastate our ability to enforce federal law.

Good on these lawmakers for highlighting the disastrous consequences that cuts to the NLRB’s staffing would have on our country’s workers.

With our agency already stretched so thin, DOGE must understand that we have nothing left to cut.

@bobbyscott.house.gov @gregcasar.bsky.social

Democrats in Congress warn cuts at top US labor watchdog will be ‘catastrophic’ Musk’s Doge targets National Labor Relations Board with cuts and terminated leases as union speaks out

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

And things could get worse than delays. If DOGE were to order cuts at the NLRB on a geographic basis, say by closing an entire regional office, workers in that jurisdiction would be completely deprived of their rights under federal labor law. There is no other agency to turn to.

The NLRB has lost nearly 40 percent of its field staff since FY2014. During that decade of almost flat funding, our ability to enforce the law has been severely tested. The average time from the filing of a charge to the issuance of a complaint has increased from 108 days to 440!