This weekend brought big news: President Obama used his Constitutional appointment powers to fill two slots on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that have been vacant since 2007. Craig Becker and Mark Pearce will be added to the five-member board, which administrates disputes between labor and management.

American Rights at Work applauds these appointments as an effective first step toward improving conditions for America's workers. Said Executive Director Kimberly Freeman Brown in a statement:

"When jobs are scarce, workers are often forced to endure unfair working conditions. America's workers need a fully functioning NLRB to medite their claims for better wages, benefits and other rights now more than ever - and after two long years they have one."

A group of 46 of the country's leading labor law scholars are similarly pleased at the prospect of a functioning NLRB. They signed a letter to President Obama, thanking him for his action on this issue. "These new Board Members will bring their wealth of experience as legal scholars and labor law practitioners to serve with fairness and integrity," the letter states, "We again extend our appreciation to you for making the recess appointments that will allow the Board to tackle this work.

The scholars' letter also reminds us that recess appointments are hardly uncommon or unprecedented. George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments during his eight years in office — Ronald Reagan made 243.

With President Barack Obama’s nominees defeated, America’s workers continue to pay the cost. The board will continue to hobble along as it has for the past two years. Stuck with just two members, every critical case at the national level is frozen…This means that millions of workers who saw their right to form a union revoked by the Bush board — like the nurses and professionals wrongly labeled as supervisors — must continue to work without job security and a voice to improve their working conditions.

As a mother I’ve learned that regardless of his repeated assurances, my toddler will only stop harassing his little brother when there are real consequences to his misbehavior (i.e., no more train video). Yet when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged Consolidated Biscuit with illegally harassing its union supporters–despite the company’s pledge to stop in two previous settlements—the agency didn’t provide any real consequences.

Rather than pursuing an injunction and contempt-of-court charges against the company to prevent further violations, they decided to negotiate yet another settlement. This milquetoast response to a habitual unionbuster illustrates why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, which would increase penalties for unlawful employers, and require the use of injunctions to curb employers’ bad behavior when there’s reasonable cause to believe that someone’s rights have been violated.

Two contradicting court decisions issued last week leave the National Labor Relations Board in legal limbo.  For the past 16 months, Wilma Liebman and Peter Schaumber have jointly issued 400 decisions, preventing a major backlog of cases while the Board was down by three members.  Yet the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington just held that it was invalid for them to issue two-member decisions, while a federal appellate court in Chicago upheld the validity of their decisions.  It will likely take a Supreme Court decision to clear up the legal matter.

It is all the more imperative now that the Senate swiftly confirm President Obama’s nominees for two vacant Board seats. If the Board is forced to re-examine all of those cases when another member is appointed, it must do so quickly in order to minimize the damage done to workers.  Behind each of those cases are real people who are waiting for their union to be recognized, waiting for their employer to come to the bargaining table, and waiting to collect backpay for a wrongful termination.

The National Labor Relations Board may once again be a worker-friendly agency which actually fulfills its mission to promote democracy in the workplace. 

President Obama has announced that he is appointing Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to fill two open vacancies on the Labor Board.  Both men have a history of advocating on behalf of workers and for reforming labor law through direct legal work and in academic posts.  If confirmed, they will join Chair Wilma Liebman and Member Schaumber, with one vacancy remaining.

For more info, check out the American Prospect.

If I were a scurrilous lawyer advising a new employer on federal employment laws, I would tell them not to worry about violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). When an employer violates any of the three major federal employment laws covering minimum wage, discrimination, or safety, they must at least pay fines or damages. Yet there are no penalties assessed on employers who commit unfair labor practices under the NLRA. Check out this new chart released by American Rights at Work, which illustrates just how poorly the costs of violating labor law compare with the costs of violating other employment laws: