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On January 7, James Murphy and Scott Mayer, as National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) members, and Crystal Carey, as the NLRB's General Counsel (GC), were sworn into their roles following their confirmation votes in the Senate.
These confirmations bring the NLRB to three members (two Republicans, one Democrat), giving the Board a quorum and the Trump-backed Republican control that has long been expected. The NLRB has been without a quorum and unable to issue any decisions since President Trump fired Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox shortly after taking office (as we previously reported here).
We expect the NLRB to focus on numerous areas (as noted here), and we anticipate more employer-friendly decisions in contrast to the NLRB's actions and decisions during the Biden administration. This shift may be even more dramatic given that former Trump-appointed NLRB Chairman Marvin Kaplan (who retired earlier this summer) stated that before resigning, he had completed considerable work to set the new Board up for "success" right off the bat.
Likewise, with Carey now at the helm in the GC role, she will have the power to steer the agency toward a more employer-friendly position and is expected to have an immediate impact by swiftly rescinding Memoranda issued by previous Biden-appointed GC Jennifer Abruzzo. GC Carey is also likely to issue new Memoranda that announce revised GC positions and correspondingly change initiatives and enforcement directives to the NLRB's regional directors, who are part of the enforcement process. These changes are expected to be a dramatic shift from Abruzzo's positions and certainly more employer-friendly.
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