NLRB Joint Employer Rewrite Signals Expansion of Partisan Battle

Plans from the Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board to repeal a Trump-era rule on joint employment could be the opening salvo in a more expansive partisan war—one where labor and management-side interests battle each other through new rulemaking and subsequent lawsuits in federal court.

The shift threatens to stretch the small agency’s resources and give courts an opportunity to further intervene, employment lawyers say. In the short-term, it heightens the partisan rancor at the NLRB and the legal tug of war that follows.

“We’re going to be in a stalemate in the system in the courts, as ...