How Long Will Biden-Era Power Grabs Endure? 

Senate Confirmation of Pending Nominee Could Lead to Real Change 

It’s now been almost two years since radically pro-forced unionism President Joe Biden was replaced by Republican Donald Trump, who during his first term in office had compiled a generally pro-Right to Work track record. 

Unfortunately, workers across the country who would like to remove an unwanted union from their workplace are still being hamstrung by the so-called “blocking charge policy” instituted by the Biden National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

Blocking charges are unfair labor practice allegations that union officials regularly file with the NLRB for the sole purpose of delaying a worker-requested election to remove an unwanted union. 

Blocking Charges Keep Workers Stuck in Unions They Never Even Voted in 

Under the Election Protection Rule issued by Board members appointed during the first Trump Administration, mere allegations of employer misconduct could not block employees from having the decertification vote they requested. 

In most cases, the election was conducted and the vote tally was immediately released. 

The Biden union lawyers on the Board reversed the Election Protection Rule, once again allowing union lawyers to put elections on hold simply by filing charges against employers. 

In many cases, employees who are denied the opportunity to vote out a union as a consequence of the Biden green light for Big Labor blocking charges never got a chance to vote on whether or not they wanted to have a union in the first place. 

Adherence to Unwritten NLRB Rule Has Protected Anti-Worker Precedents So Far 

For example, several years ago over 270 employees working at four different Green Thumb Industries locations in New Jersey were corralled into Local 360 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW/AFL-CIO) union through a coercive “card check” scheme with no secret-ballot vote. 

In October 2024, employees at the same four facilities successfully petitioned for a vote to remove Local 360 bosses from their workplaces. But union bigwigs then proceeded to use blocking charges to prevent employees’ votes from being counted for the better part of two years! 

At the end of last year, a majority of U.S. senators offered a ray of hope to independent-minded workers and small business owners whose statutory rights have been trampled by Biden NLRB radicals. 

On December 18, the Senate voted 53- 43 to confirm two new NLRB members, Scott Mayer and James Murphy, whom President Trump had nominated for open seats on the five-member Board five months earlier. 

The same majority coalition of senators simultaneously heeded National Right to Work Committee members’ pleas by confirming as NLRB general counsel Crystal Carey, a qualified labor attorney whom Mr. Trump had nominated back in March 2025. 

Thanks to the confirmations of Mr. Mayer and Mr. Murphy, Trump appointees who at least may be open to considering reversal of the Biden NLRB’s lawless, pro-forced unionism decisions now constitute a 2-1 majority on the Board. (The third seat is held by Biden-appointed Big Labor partisan David Prouty, and two others are vacant as this Newsletter edition goes to press.) 

However, because Mr. Mayer and Mr. Murphy are choosing to comply with an unwritten NLRB rule by not overturning past precedents without at least three members in agreement, the blocking charge rule and other Biden-era power grabs remain in place more than halfway into 2026. 

After Persistent Right to Work Pleas, President Nominated James Macy 

Committee Vice President Greg Mourad commented: 

“Well aware that the rabidly pro-union boss Biden era at the NLRB can’t be completely over until at least three fair-minded labor-law specialists are sitting on the Board, for months Right to Work-mobilized supporters across the U.S. pressed the White House to name a third pro-Right to Work individual to the NLRB. 

“It appears the President got the message. 

“On April 13, he nominated James Macy, the director of the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation programs, for one of the open NLRB positions, while also re-nominating Biden holdover David Prouty for a new five-year term. 

“On July 15, Right to Work efforts to overturn Biden NLRB bureaucrats’ anti-employee precedents moved another step forward when the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions [HELP] Committee voted to advance the Macy nomination to the Senate floor.” 

By the time the paper edition of this Newsletter reaches its readers in late August and early September, Mr. Macy could potentially be confirmed, but that is far from certain at press time. 

‘Workers Should Not Have to Wait Nearly Two Years For Their Votes to Be Counted’ 

The day before the HELP Committee confirmation votes, the outrageousness of the Biden NLRB’s blocking-charge rule was highlighted when the NLRB finally certified, roughly 21 months after the balloting had occurred, Green Thumb workers’ vote to decertify UFCW union bosses by a seven-to-one margin. 

Lead Warehouse Technician Michael Potter led the decertification drive with the help of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys. He commented: 

“This was our opportunity to [have] a secret-ballot election, which was denied to us when the union was installed. 

“We are grateful the votes were finally counted . . . .” 

Mr. Mourad agreed, but added: “Workers should not have to wait nearly two years for their votes to be counted.” 

Some GOP Politicians Favor Big Labor Appeasement Over Protecting Workers’ Rights 

He continued: 

“Unfortunately, one important reason why it has taken so long for the Trump Administration to get in place an NLRB that can begin undoing the damage wrought by the Biden Board is that a relatively small, but vocal, contingent of Beltway Republicans, such as Sens. Josh Hawley [Mo.] and Bernie Moreno [Ohio], favor Big Labor appeasement over protecting workers’ rights. 

“Delays in making and confirming NLRB appointments, the GOP appeasers evidently calculate, are a way of scoring points with the tiny contingent of national union bosses, epitomized by Teamster czar Sean O’Brien, who pitch themselves as political independents rather than as Democrat Party operatives. 

“But the reality is that Mr. O’Brien is just as committed as any other top union boss to trampling workers’ freedom to band together to vote out a union along with their freedom as individuals not to bankroll a union they personally don’t support. 

“There is no way a party whose base supports the Right to Work principle by an 86% to 8% margin, as the GOP base does, can possibly forge an alliance with a man like Sean O’Brien. And it is extraordinarily foolish for GOP candidates to even try.”

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This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.

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