Labor Board Back in Business After Fired Member’s Reinstatement

The National Labor Relations Board issued its first rulings since a federal judge reinstated member Gwynne Wilcox, but it’s unclear how long the window for board action will remain open.

The NLRB’s four unpublished decisions Friday adopted administrative law judge orders that weren’t challenged by either the charged parties or the general counsel’s office.

The revived board’s initial actions come in the shadow of the the Trump administration’s plans to petition the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to temporarily block the lower court’s order reinstating Wilcox while its full challenge to her decision proceeds.

The forthcoming DC Circuit stay request will likely go before the same motions panel that granted the administration’s bid to pause a district court order reinstating fired Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, who subsequently dropped his appeal.

Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, rejected on Saturday the administration’s request to stay her own decision that allowed Wilcox to return. She said the administration’s success blocking Dellinger’s reinstatement doesn’t guarantee the same fate for Wilcox, as the legality of their respective firings are governed by different precedents.

But regardless of what happens in federal court, there’s no question that the NLRB is fully back to business for now. While many of the agency’s functions continued while NLRB lacked a three-member quorum, the board couldn’t issue decisions.

The board was hobbled for more than a month because of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 termination of Wilcox, which Howell determined to be a “blatant violation of the law” in her ruling that said an “American President is not a king.”

The NLRB’s four unpublished decisions were some of the most routine types of board action. Such adoptions of administrative law judge rulings are essentially automatic, issued by the executive secretary’s office at the direction of the board based on the expiration of the time allowed for filing an appeal. Yet none were issued when the board had no quorum.

The board adopted ALJ rulings that Interstate Rentals, GT Security Services GTS, and Teamsters Local 728 committed unfair labor practices, as well as a decision dismissing charges against Mount Sinai Health System, Inc.

The cases are Interstate Power Tools and Machining Inc., d/b/a Interstate Rentals, N.L.R.B., Case 25-CA-323892, 3/7/25, Goke Technology LLC d/b/a GT Security Services GTS, N.L.R.B., Case 09-CA-312117, 3/7/25, Teamsters Local 728, N.L.R.B., Case 10-CB-335036, 3/7/25, Mount Sinai Health System, Inc., N.L.R.B., Case 02-CA-329471, 3/7/25.