National Labor Relations Board NLRB

The National Labor Relations Act, known as the Wagner Act and signed on July 5, 1935, guaranteed most private-sector workers the right to form unions, bargain collectively, and strike, and created the National Labor Relations Board to enforce it. The Supreme Court upheld the law in NLRB v. Jones and Laughlin Steel on April 12, 1937. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 added limits on unions and created an independent General Counsel to prosecute cases, separate from the five-member Board that decides them.

The NLRB conducts secret-ballot elections in which workers decide whether to be represented by a union, and it investigates charges of unfair labor practices by employers or unions, such as firing workers for organizing or refusing to bargain. Its regional offices handle tens of thousands of cases a year, most settled without litigation. The Board, whose members serve staggered five-year terms, decides contested cases and sets national labor policy largely through its decisions, which often shift when the White House changes parties. The law does not cover government workers, farmworkers, or independent contractors.

On January 27, 2025, the President removed a Democratic Board member before her term expired, leaving the Board without the three-member quorum it needs to decide cases. On May 22, 2025, in Trump v. Wilcox, the Supreme Court allowed the removal to stand while the case continued, signaling doubts about the 1935 precedent that protects such officials. In June 2026, in Trump v. Slaughter, the Court overruled that precedent, Humphrey's Executor, which largely settled the dispute in the President's favor, although the Court reserved questions about bodies that act mainly as adjudicators. Several employers have also challenged the constitutionality of the Board's structure in court. Supporters of the removal said elected presidents must control agencies that make national policy, while labor advocates warned it would make enforcement of workers' rights depend on politics.