The U.S. Senate confirmed more than 90 presidential nominees in a single party-line 53-43 vote Dec. 18 with only Republicans voting to confirm. The batch included President Donald Trump’s picks to lead the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which enforces the federal law that protects private sector workers’ union rights and holds union elections.
Trump’s pick to be general counsel, the NLRB’s top prosecutor, is Crystal Carey, a partner at one of the biggest employer-side labor law firms; her firm’s clients include notorious union-busters like Amazon and SpaceX.
Also confirmed were Scott Mayer and James Murphy — Trump’s nominees to the NLRB’s five-member board, which acts like a Supreme Court of labor law. Mayer was previously the top labor lawyer for Boeing. Murphy was chief counsel for NLRB Board Member Marvin Kaplan, a 2017 Trump appointee. Their confirmation restores the NLRB to quorum that had been lost when Trump fired Board member Gwynne Wilcox in February.
