Retailers Support Confirmation Of Second NLRB Nominee

The National Retail Federation recently offered support for William Emanuel, President Trump’s latest nominee for the National Labor Relations Board, and urged the Senate to swiftly confirm both Emanuel and Trump’s earlier nominee, Marvin Kaplan.

“Mr. Emanuel is a highly qualified and well-respected labor attorney who will bring decades of relevant expertise to the board,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said. “Retailers are confident that he will be a fair arbiter of the law and urge the Senate to confirm him promptly.”

“Over the past eight years, the retail industry and employers across the country have faced a crushing regulatory burden that has created immense uncertainty in labor relations and made it much harder to grow,” French said. “Much of this uncertainty has stemmed from the NLRB’s pursuit of an activist agenda that consistently put the interests of labor unions before the rights of employers and employees. Both job creators and employees will benefit from a more balanced approach in labor relations.”

Emanuel and Kaplan would fill the two current vacancies on the five-member board.

In recent years, retailers have been burdened by NLRB decisions on policies such as the joint-employer standard, micro-unions and changes to union election procedures.

NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and Internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nation’s largest private sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs – 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6T to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nation’s economy.