Description: On September 25, 2017, the U.S. Senate confirmed, on a party-line vote, President Trump’s nominee William J. Emanuel to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a 5-year term. The NLRB now has a full five-member Board, with 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats.

Fair Economy Impact:  The NLRB protects the rights of most private-sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages and working conditions. Employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act are guaranteed the right to form, join, decertify, or assist a labor organization, and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, or to refrain from such activities. The NLRB is an independent agency whose members will decide cases involving when and how workers can form a union, or what types of concerted activities employees can engage in to try and improve their working lives will be protected by the law.  Mr. Emanuel was an attorney at the Littler Mendelson law firm who had regularly represented large employers.