On Tuesday, January 4, Barack Obama appointed three new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, in charge of enforcing union rights). Indeed, after Craig Becker’s term expired on January 3, the institution could have been paralyzed, since the Board’s quorum is three members and there were already two vacancies (see our dispatch No. 110785). To go round the reluctance of the Senate, which still hasn’t given its consent for the nomination of attorney Terence Flynn about a year ago, the President took advantage of this post-holiday period to do ‘recess appointments’ – appointments by the President alone while the Senate is in recess. In concrete terms, with these recess appointments, three experts appointed over the year (Terence Flynn, Sharon Block, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, and Richard Griffin, General Counsel of the International Union of Operating Engineers, both appointed in mid-December) were re-appointed.
nt Secretary for Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, and Richard Griffin, General Counsel of the International Union of Operating Engineers, both appointed in mid-December) were re-appointed.
“Unprecedented” initiative. Since the Upper House’s Republican group has made sure that there was daily presence (even just a few minutes) at the Senate after the outcome of the last Parliament session, just before Christmas, the MPs criticizing the NLRB are questioning the validity of t
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