Employee rights | Amazon & SpaceX among those gaining ground against NLRB with constitutional challenges

Employers are increasingly relying on the US Constitution to provide a legal framework that can undermine the work of the National Labor Relations Board, notching early victories in their challenge to the agency.

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency tasked with safeguarding employee rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The agency also acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices in the private sector.

The NLRB faces constitutional arguments in cases that include in-house unfair labor practice proceedings, district court lawsuits, appellate review of board and lower court rulings, and a bid to get a court to force a company to bargain with a union.

NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said earlier in the year that large corporations are only challenging the agency’s constitutionality to divert its scarce resources away from enforcing labor law against them.