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Trump fires senior labor board official in ‘unprecedented and illegal’ move

2025-01-28 16:07

Donald Trump has fired a senior official at the top US labor watchdog, in effect paralyzing the body until a replacement is confirmed.

Gwynne Wilcox, a member and former chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), described her dismissal as “unprecedented and illegal” and pledged to challenge the move.

Her removal leaves the board with only two members, and leaves it without a quorum of three members required to issue decisions, per a 2010 supreme court ruling.

Wilcox was confirmed by the Senate, and her term was due to continue until August 2028. She had been appointed chair of the NLRB by Biden last month, before Trump appointed Marvin Kaplan, a Republican-appointed member, as chair last week.

“It’s been an honor to serve as a Board Member and Chair of the National Labor Relations Board,” Wilcox said in a statement. “As the first Black woman Board Member, I brought a unique perspective that I believe will be lost upon my unprecedented and illegal removal. Throughout my time at the NLRB, I’ve worked well with my colleagues and the dedicated career staff who uphold the mission of the Agency. I will be pursuing all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent.”

The NLRB’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, was also fired. The deputy general counsel, Jessica Rutter, is now serving as acting general counsel.

On Abruzzo’s watch, several corporations – including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Amazon – have challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB, based on limitations of the president’s ability to remove members of the board.

The National Labor Relations Act authorizes the president to remove members of the board only under narrow circumstances of negligence of duty or malfeasance, which has typically left board members to serve out their terms during presidential administration changes.

The NLRB “accomplished so much through our robust education, protection, and enforcement efforts,” Abruzzo said in a statement. “There’s no putting that genie back in the bottle.

“So, if the Agency does not fully effectuate its Congressional mandate in the future as we did during my tenure, I expect that workers with assistance from their advocates will take matters into their own hands in order to get well-deserved dignity and respect in the workplace, as well as a fair share of the significant value they add to their employer’s operations.”

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