NLRB Issues First Three-Member Decision In Years
For approximately twenty-eight months, beginning in December 2007, only two of the five seats on the National Labor Relations Board were filled. On March 23, 2010, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in New Process Steel v. National Labor Relations Board, Case 08-1547, regarding the issue of whether the Board could so function. Subsequently, on March 27, 2010, President Obama filled two of the vacancies with the recess appointments of Craig Becker and Mark Gaston Pearce.
Today, for the first time in over two years, a three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision. Chairwoman Liebman, Member Schaumber and Member Pearce issued a unanimous Decision and Determination of Dispute in the matter of Electrical Workers Local 71 (Capital Electric Line Builders, Inc.), 355 NLRB No. 24 (April 16, 2010). In the case, the Board found that there was a jurisdictional dispute, within the meaning of Section 10(k) of the National Labor Relations Act, between IBEW Local 71 and Laborers Local 534, arising out of work in Butler County, Ohio. Applying fairly settled standards, the Board awarded the work in dispute to the IBEW.
