This was not a surprise when President Trump fired the National Council of Labor Council Jennifer Abruzzo at the end of Monday. She was appointed to Biden, who had used the agency to expand workers’ rights.
But Trump went further, and also fired the Democratic Council member Gwyn Wilcox in an unprecedented move, which will be welcomed with a legal battle.
Due to the existing vacancies, the Wilcox is extinguished leaves the board with only two members, except the quorum it needs to rely even routine. (The Council, when it is fully staff, has five members.)
While the courts have confirmed the President’s powers to remove the NLRB General Council, The Law on National Labor Relations is indicated Board members can be eliminated “to neglect an obligation or abuse of office, but for another reason.”
In a statement, Wilcox called her to shoot illegally.
“I will pursue all the legal roads to dispute my removal, which violates the long -standing precedent of the Supreme Court,” she writes.
A case of the Supreme Court of 1935, known as Humphrey performer established restrictions on the powers of the President to remove officials who perform quasi-statutory or quasi-judicial functions, as do members of the NLRB board.
Since their appointments in 2021, Wilcox and Abruzzo have taken broad views on the protection of the Labor Act offers workers.
Wilcox, a former Union lawyer, writes that as the first black woman to serve on the Labor Board, “I brought a unique perspective that I believe will be lost.”
As a prosecutor of the agency, Abruzzo works to eliminate the barriers before organization, recently winning a council prohibiting meetings of a “captivity audience” or mandatory meetings that employers are trying to discourage workers to unite.
Her approach to protecting workers’ rights and attracting employers has raised the anger of many in the corporate world. Nlrb is confronted with more than two dozen court cases Brought by companies, including Spacex and Amazon, who say the agency’s structure gives it unverified power to form and apply labor lawS Space X was founded by Trump’s advisor and billionaire Elon Musk.
In his first term of office, Trump’s general adviser to the employment agency was Peter Rob, a lawyer from the Labor Management, who serves as a leading lawyer Ronald Reagan during the strike of air traffic controllers in 1981.
Last week, Trump appointed Marvin Kaplan, a sole member of the Republican Council at NLRB, as chairman. It is not clear when – or even if Trump will fill the three vacancies.
The expulsion of Wilcox and Abuzzo came only hours after workers at the Whole Foods market in Philadelphia voted 130 to 100 to join the Union Food & Commercial Workers Union. The grocery chain is owned by Amazon, which has already been sunk in legitimate battles for efforts to unite workers into its warehouses.
In a statement Abuzzo emphasized the work that NLRB took place in Biden, allowing workers to seek better salaries, benefits and working conditions.
“There is no placement of this gin back in the bottle” Abruzzo wroteS “So, if the agency does not fully achieve its term of congress in the future, as we did during our term, I expect workers with the help of their defenders to take things in their own hands to deserve dignity and respect in the workplace. ”
Copyright 2025 NPR