National Labor Relations Board Union

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!

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

As reported last week, we can confirm that DOGE has entered the NLRB’s operations and detailed multiple employees to the Agency. We do not know yet what their intentions are.

What we DO know is that the NLRB cannot afford to lose any more staff for the sake of “efficiency.”

It should go without saying, but this is comically inconsistent with the White House’s illegal return-to-work order that is being instituted on March 31, in violation of our Union’s contract with the Agency. Where exactly is DOGE proposing that Milwaukee agents work from?!

While we are not aware of any staffing cuts having been recommended to NLRB leadership, we oppose any such proposal to the fullest degree. As the courts have ruled, neither DOGE nor OPM have any authority to command an independent agency to reduce its workforce.

Save the NLRB.

As we have explained for years, the NLRB is an agency that has been starved of funding and resources for over a decade. We have seen massive staffing cuts simply from attrition. There is no need for any austerity measures with our operations; Congress has already done that to us.

We are concerned with reports from other independent agencies in recent weeks that DOGE has proposed workforce reductions at. We cannot express more clearly that the same game plan at the NLRB would be catastrophic for the Agency’s operations and our ability to enforce the law.

As reported last week, we can confirm that DOGE has entered the NLRB’s operations and detailed multiple employees to the Agency. We do not know yet what their intentions are.

What we DO know is that the NLRB cannot afford to lose any more staff for the sake of “efficiency.”

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Yesterday, the NLRBU learned that DOGE has unilaterally cancelled the Milwaukee office’s lease a year early, without notice. The lease will now expire in August 2025.

DOGE has not provided the NLRB with any alternative for Milwaukee agents to perform their work.

Despite the general chaos of the federal government and a likely years-long hiring freeze, Board Agents are continuing to perform mission-critical work to the best of their abilities. But stunts like these needlessly imperil the labor rights of Wisconsin workers.

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It should go without saying, but this is comically inconsistent with the White House’s illegal return-to-work order that is being instituted on March 31, in violation of our Union’s contract with the Agency. Where exactly is DOGE proposing that Milwaukee agents work from?!

The Milwaukee NLRB office has seen a 17% uptick in case filings over the last decade, at a time that the Agency’s field offices have on average lost 40% of their staffs. Board Agents are drowning in work while DOGE is literally removing the roofs from over their heads.

The Milwaukee NLRB office currently operates out of a privately-owned building. It is the NLRBU’s understand that there is no space available for the Agency in Milwaukee’s federal building. DOGE, in all of its haste, is flirting with ending labor law enforcement in Wisconsin.

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Yesterday, the NLRBU learned that DOGE has unilaterally cancelled the Milwaukee office’s lease a year early, without notice. The lease will now expire in August 2025.

DOGE has not provided the NLRB with any alternative for Milwaukee agents to perform their work.

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In another example of DOGE’s destructive and erratic form of “governing,” the NLRB told its employees today that agency credit cards are considered frozen for at least the next 30 days.

This throws any NLRB election or trial that requires overnight travel into question.