Summary: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during the Biden administration has supported workers’ rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining, standing in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s anti-worker record.
Key findings
President Biden has nominated experienced worker advocates and increased funding to the NLRB—the independent agency responsible for protecting private-sector workers’ organizing and bargaining rights. The Trump administration, however, appointed corporate lawyers to leadership positions and hollowed out the agency by not filling vacancies.
President Biden’s appointees have advanced the NLRB’s mission by addressing issues such as employee status under the law, the scope of concerted activity protected by the law, the representation process, and remedies for violations of the law.
The Biden NLRB has made significant progress in undoing the damage inflicted by the Trump administration’s appointees and in restoring workers’ rights, but more remains to be done.
Structural weaknesses in the law continue to be an obstacle to workers seeking to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining.