Posts tagged Gwynne Wilcox
Federal Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Starbucks Baristas’ First-In-The-Nation Suit Challenging Constitutionality of NLRB
May 16, 2025 // Cortes and Karam’s case, originally filed in 2023, was the first in the nation to advance the argument that NLRB board members’ removal protections – which insulate members of the federal labor board from accountability to the President except on very rare occasions – violate separation of powers doctrines in Article II of the Constitution. Since Foundation attorneys filed the baristas’ case, the Trump Administration advanced the same arguments to remove Biden NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox from the Board, which is now the subject of ongoing litigation.
Jennifer Abruzzo Wants Workers to Fight Back
May 14, 2025 // On May 5, Workday Magazine interviewed Abruzzo, who has since returned to the Communications Workers of America, as a senior advisor to the president. We talked about how protected concerted activity can include Gaza protests, why it’s a shame that domestic workers and farm workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, and what workers can do to fight back in the Trump era. “It’s up to the people to actually use their power and flex their muscles in order to get the changes that they deem are appropriate,” she says, “so that they can live the lives that they deserve with dignity and respect.
U Rochester Ph.D. Student Workers Strike for an Election Without the NLRB
April 27, 2025 // University of Rochester Ph.D. student workers began striking this week to pressure the institution to agree to what they call a “fair union election.” And for the process to be fair, they say, it can’t be handled by the Trump-era National Labor Relations Board. “We don’t see any kind of path through the NLRB at present,” said George Elkind, a Ph.D. student on the proposed UR Graduate Labor Union’s organizing committee.
US Supreme Court clears way for Trump to remove two Democratic members of labor boards for now
April 10, 2025 // Trump's efforts to remove Harris have threatened to leave the board without a two-seat quorum - making it unable to decide cases - after the term of Democratic member Raymond Limon expired on February 28. In ruling in favor of Harris, Contreras said the statutory protections for board members from being removed without cause conform with the Constitution in light of a 1935 Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey's Executor v. United States. In that case, the court ruled that a president lacks unfettered power to remove commissioners of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, faulting then-President Franklin Roosevelt's firing of an FTC commissioner for policy differences.
‘Trump and Musk are setting the example’: how companies are becoming emboldened to be more anti-union
April 10, 2025 // That tougher behavior under former president Ronald Reagan sped the decline of private sector unions. Today, just 6% of private sector workers are in unions, while 32% of public sector workers are. Anti-union ideologues are increasingly targeting public sector unions, which often support Democrats. “Because almost half of the labor movement is now in the public sector, the assault that we’re seeing now is really focused on the public sector,” McCartin said. “That really threatens to break the spine of the labor movement.”
An Executive Power Case That Trump May Win
April 7, 2025 // The Supreme Court seems likely to agree that a member of the National Labor Relations Board may be fired by the president at will.
NY Starbucks Baristas File Amicus Brief Opposing Reinstatement of Biden-Appointed NLRB Member Removed by President Trump
March 13, 2025 // Starbucks employees have pending federal lawsuit challenging NLRB structure as unconstitutional, argue they could be harmed if member’s removal is blocked
Official Fired By Trump Returns To Work To Cheers After Judge Orders Reinstatement
March 11, 2025 // Wilcox filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, arguing her removal was unlawful. Judge Beryl A. Howell agreed with Wilcox, issuing an order last Thursday ensuring her temporary return to the agency as the underlying case moves forward. In a stinging opinion, Howell wrote that Trump failed to grasp the Constitution’s limits on executive power.
National Labor Relations Board Back to Quorum Strength as Member Wilcox Is Reinstated
March 11, 2025 // The statutory limitations swayed the judge, as did the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor, where the Court upheld similar limits on the president’s ability to fire a Federal Trade Commission Official. In sum, Judge Howell ordered Wilcox’s reinstatement, giving the Board the quorum it lacked. This decision has implications for the President’s recent Executive Order seeking to vest all lawmaking power of Independent Administrative Agencies like the NLRB in the President’s office. Given the stakes here, the court’s decision is certainly not the final word, as President Trump’s team is expected to appeal, perhaps all the way to the Supreme Court, where they will argue that Humphrey’s Executor is distinguishable and that Board members do exercise executive authority and should therefore be in line with Presidential policies.
Judge Reinstates Labor Board Member Fired by Trump
March 7, 2025 // Judge Howell made a joke about the case’s possible trajectory, saying that she understood that “this court is merely a speed bump for you all to get to the Supreme Court.”