On the recordSeptember 25, 2017
today we are voting on the nomination of William Emanuel to serve on the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB may be one of the most important independent Federal agencies that you have never heard of. They are responsible for protecting the lawful rights of workers to come together and bargain with their bosses for higher wages and better working conditions. Starting a union is not an easy task. Often, it is a large corporation against its own employees. The money and the ability to threaten retaliation are heavily weighted on the corporate side. For more than a century, many corporations fought unions tooth and nail, hiring strikebreakers and union-busting thugs and, later on, union-busting lawyers. So back in the 1930s, Congress established the NLRB to act as a referee and to keep the playing field level so that workers would have a chance to form a union if they wanted to. President Trump picked William Emanuel to fill a vacancy on the NLRB. Mr. Emanuel has over 40 years of experience practicing labor and employment law. He has represented manufacturing companies, trade associations, logistics companies, hospitals, and dozens of other giant companies involved in labor disputes. He has represented big companies like Nissan, FedEx, Rite Aid, Safeway and Uber. That is an impressive resume. There is just one problem with it: In his more than four decades of practice, he has never been on the side of the workers--not once.…





