The National Labor Relations Board sued California to block a law that gives state agencies the power to oversee some private-sector labor disputes and union elections.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said this last month in response to the Trump administration’s obstruction of federal regulators. It would give the state’s Public Employment Relations Board the power to step in and oversee union elections, workplace retaliation charges and other issues if the federal Labor Relations Board is unable or refuses to decide a case.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleges the law usurps the NLRB’s authority “by seeking to regulate areas expressly reserved for federal oversight.”
This case echoes the NLRB’s recent challenge to a recent New York state law that similarly expands the powers of the state labor commission.
NLRB lawyers argue in the lawsuit that the law creates a parallel regulatory regime that is inconsistent with federal labor law.
The NLRB is tasked with protecting the right of civilian employees to unionize and otherwise organize to improve working conditions.
Lawmakers in New York and California said they passed the bill to bridge the gap in the NLRB, which has been paralyzed since January, when President Trump fired one of its Democratic board members. The unprecedented firing of its member, Gwynne Wilcox, left the board without the three-member quorum needed to adjudicate the case.
Wilcox challenged her removal in court, arguing that appointed directors can only be removed for “misconduct or neglect of duty.” But for now, the Supreme Court has upheld her removal until her case is heard in lower courts.
California Federation of Labor President Lorena Gonzalez last month called AB 288 “the most significant labor law reform in nearly a century.”
The California Public Employment Relations Board typically has authority only over public sector employees. But when the new law goes into effect on January 1, private-sector workers who don’t get a timely response at the federal level will also be able to petition state boards to take up their cases and enforce their rights.
According to the language of the law, a state labor board can elect to take a case if the NLRB has “expressly or implicitly ceded jurisdiction.” This includes when a complaint or election certification filed with a government agency is overdue by a regional director for more than six months, or when the federal board lacks a quorum of members or is otherwise prevented.
Hundreds of lawsuits have stalled due to the NLRB’s paralysis, and the NLRB currently lacks the ability to force employers to bargain with unions or stop unfair treatment in the workplace.
But the agency’s acting general counsel, William Cowen, a Trump appointee, said there has been little impact on the agency’s operations as only a small number of cases typically require decisions by the five-member board and regional offices continue to process union elections and unfair labor practice complaints.
