NLRB Republicans Don’t Always Agree

A 2-1 NLRB order just split the Board’s own Republican members.

A healthcare staffing company, Sharp Staffing Resource Network, asked the Board to review a regional director’s decision allowing a union election. The employees then voted 31-0 to unionize while the request was pending.

The Board denied review 2-1, but the lineup was unusual. Republican Chairman James Murphy joined Democrat David Prouty to deny review. Republican Scott Mayer dissented, arguing the company had properly raised a unit-appropriateness issue under the Board’s 1989 healthcare rule and that the case should go back for more record development.

The majority said Sharp Staffing raised its healthcare-rule argument too late, for the first time in its request for review, so the issue wasn’t properly before the Board.

A “Republican majority” doesn’t mean lockstep. Members bring different views on procedure and deference, even when the politics line up.

For employers litigating before the Board: preserve your arguments early. Raise it before the regional director, or risk losing it. Timing is everything.