Union Leaders Call on Obama to Fill Labor Board

ORLANDO â€" The nation’s union leaders are voicing alarm that the National Labor Relations Board might remain paralyzed for a year or more as a result of a federal appeals court ruling that found President Obama’s recess appointments to the board to be unconstitutional.

Gathering here for the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s winter meeting, union leaders on Tuesday called on Mr. Obama to immediately nominate a slate of five members to fill all of the board’s seats.

Labor leaders asserted that the court ruling could badly undercut unions because a paralyzed N.L.R.B. would not be able to intervene if employers engaged in unlawful tactics during unionization drives, including illegally firing union supporters or intimidating workers into voting against having a union.

In January, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that three recess appointments - two Democrats and one Republican - that Mr. Obama made to the board in January 2012 were illegal because they were not made during the intersessi! on period between Congresses. The ruling would leave the board with just one member, its chairman, meaning that it would not have the three members needed to have a quorum for it to operate.

In response to the ruling, some business groups have recommended that employers found by the N.L.R.B. to have engaged in unlawful labor practices ask the appeals court in Washington to freeze those actions on the grounds that the board has not had a legitimate quorum for more than a year.

On Tuesday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive committee approved a statement saying the court ruling “has seriously undermined enforcement of the law and made an already weak law more lopsided against workers exercising their rights.”

The United States Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have criticized the N.L.R.B.’s chairman, Mark G. Pearce, a Democrat, for saying the board wold continue to operate with two of its remaining recess appointees, both Democrats, staying on until the Supreme Court rules on whether those appointments were legal. (The Republican recess appointee had previously resigned after facing allegations of illegally leaking board materials.)

Union officials say the earliest the Supreme Court might rule on such an appeal would be a year from now. Some Republicans are backing a bill that would strip the labor board of funding unless the recess appointees step down. The board’s acting general counsel, Lafe E. Solomon, is also a recess appointee - Senate Republicans have blocked his confirmation.

The Chamber of Commerce has said the board under Mr. Obama has been consistently antibusiness and has been far too aggressive in overturning previous board decisio! ns that f! avored employers.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s leaders called on Mr. Obama to immediately name a slate of nominees - including Mr. Pearce and the two Democrats whose names Mr. Obama resubmitted after the court’s ruling, as well as two new Republicans - and also to renominate Mr. Solomon as general counsel. They said that the Senate should vote to quickly confirm those nominees, adding that if Republicans filibustered the nominations, then Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, and Senate Democrats should adopt new rules to stop filibusters that are far stronger than the modest changes recently adopted.

Larry Cohen, presient of the Communications Workers of America and chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s organizing committee, said in a news briefing that Senate Democrats had various options on how to get those nominees approved and “we expect you to use all the options.”

Mr. Cohen warned that if Senate Republicans filibustered to block the nominations and Senate Democrats did not then adopt tougher rules to overcome filibusters, “we will mobilize and take action against the Senate Democrats like we never have before.”

“We will be mobilizing across the country in every state in every one of their offices,” he added.

In its statement, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council said the Republican “aim is to tie up the N.L.R.B., render it inoperable and keep it from enforcing! workersâ! €™ rights.”