Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been making changes to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) almost every day.
New NLRB Acting General Counsel
On February 3, 2025, President Donald Trump appointed William B. Cowen as Acting General Counsel of the NLRB. This comes on the heels of the President firing former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, and Acting General Counsel Jessica Rutter.
Cowen began his career at the NLRB in 1979 and has served in various capacities. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a Board member from January 22, 2002 to November 22, 2002. He then served as Chief of Staff to then-NLRB Chairman Robert J. Battista. From 2006 to 2016, Cowen was the Board’s solicitor. Prior to Cowen’s appointment to serve as Acting General Counsel, he has been the Regional Director for the NLRB’s Los Angeles Regional Office (Region 21) since 2016.
Employer Takeaways
With his NLRB appointments, President Biden created perhaps the most employee and union friendly Board in history. Decisions by that Board made it considerably more difficult for employers to enforce workplace misconduct rules, to defeat union organizing efforts, and to decertify unions. With President Trump’s appointments, that will change dramatically and swiftly. We expect federal labor laws and policies to make a significant shift in favor of employers.
Despite the Board lacking a quorum to issue decisions, the NLRB Office of the General Counsel’s Field Offices will continue their normal operations of processing unfair labor practice cases and representation cases. This means that regional directors will process petitions for election and administrative law judges will issue decisions on unfair labor practices. It is not clear how quickly the President will move to appoint new Board members to reach a quorum. However, with a Republican-majority Senate, a quick confirmation process for a newly nominated potential Board member is likely. When the President restores the Board to a quorum, it will surely unwind Biden Administration-era decisions and Cowen will likely withdraw a number of GC memos issued by Abruzzo.
Ballard Spahr’s Labor & Employment Group will continue to monitor the latest changes to the NLRB.