As President Biden was sworn in, the legacy media, blue-checkmark Twitter, and Democrats let out a sigh of relief and rejoiced. Strewn across newspaper headlines and social media, the Biden inauguration swept in a “return to normalcy,” and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi remarked, “What a difference a day makes.”
It is understandable why so many expected a change of pace in governance from the White House. Biden’s entire campaign centered on calls for unity, the restoration of norms, and a promise to allow law enforcement officers independence — free from White House interference.
However, within the first hour of Biden’s term, his actions proved that his lofty campaign messages were hollow promises from a career politician.
While still participating in his inauguration, literally in the first 23 minutes of assuming the powers of the presidency, a Biden official put the National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel Peter Robb on notice: Resign or you’re fired.
Robb, having a four-year appointment, refused to resign voluntarily. He sent an email to Cathy Russell, assistant to the president and the director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, warning that the “removal of an incumbent General Counsel of the NLRB prior to the expiration of the term by a President of the United States is unprecedented since the nascence of the National Labor Relations Act and the NLRB. One of the key amendments to the NLRA that occurred in 1947 was to create an independent General Counsel.”
Furthermore, Robb informed the White House that removing the general counsel would “permanently undermine the structure and thus the proper functioning of the NLRB and NLRA.” Specifically, when Congress amended the National Labor Relations Act in 1947, it created the Office of the General Counsel to be independent of the board and the executive branch “so that the General Counsel, as chief prosecutor of the NLRA, can prosecute potential violations of the NLRA free from political influence and pressure.”
Despite Robb’s appeal to respect norms, Biden dismissed the NLRB General Counsel at 5 p.m. on Jan. 20. The removal of the NLRB general counsel without cause is unprecedented — only once in the over 80-year history of the NLRB has a president removed the general counsel, and that was about 70 years ago.
That Biden would eagerly do the bidding of Big Labor was telegraphed early on. In December, Biden declared he would be the “most pro-union president.”
HuffPost Labor Reporter David Jamieson reported on Jan. 14 that the politically powerful Service Employee International Union made its first ask of the Biden administration: oust Robb on day one. In making this ask, it is likely that the SEIU reminded the Biden team that it had endorsed Biden over the summer and pledged to spend $150 million on a voter engagement campaign. Biden’s purported sacred norms were not going to stop him from making good on his promises to tilt labor policy in favor of Big Labor.
Unfortunately, the degradation of the NLRB’s reputation is nothing new. National labor policy coming out of the NLRB swings like a pendulum depending on which political party is in power. Assuredly, under the Biden administration, former labor union officials will be appointed to fill the board and general counsel position, where they summarily issue decisions that coerce workers into joining labor unions or at least pay union dues. In this way, Biden is very much respecting political norms and revolving door politics.
And it is also painfully normal for a politician to fail to follow through on their campaign rhetoric. So, while Biden may be the oldest person to assume the office of the presidency, he is likely the quickest to fail to live up to his promises. Perhaps, in many ways, governance and politics are returning to normal.
Trey Kovacs is a former special assistant at the Department of Labor.
