The Senate voted 50-48 Wednesday to confirm business lawyer John Ring to fill the open seat on the National Labor Relations Board, the federal government’s main labor law enforcement agency, giving the five-member board a majority consisting of President Trump’s appointees through at least 2020.
Ring replaces former board member Philip Miscimarra, who stepped down in December at the end of his term. Democrats have been critical of Ring, formerly a management-side lawyer with the firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, as too friendly to business. He was advanced by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee last month on a strict 12-11 party-line vote. Committee Republicans delayed the vote several times to ensure enough GOP members would be present.
Business trade groups had praised Ring’s nomination before the vote. “The National Restaurant Association applauds Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell’s, R-Ky., commitment to moving this nomination through the Senate in a timely manner so Mr. Ring can begin addressing the important issues before the NLRB,” said Executive Vice President Cicely Simpson.
Last year, the Senate confirmed three other Trump picks to the board: former GOP House staffer Marvin Kaplan to an open seat, business lawyer Bill Emanuel to another open seat, and private-sector lawyer Peter Robb as the board’s general counsel. Trump appointed Kaplan to become chairman after Miscimarra stepped down.
Democrats were less than pleased. “[Ring] is the third labor attorney Mr. Trump has nominated to the committee with zero — let me say that again — zero track record of representing workers, ” siad Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., prior to Wednesday’s vote.
The board achieved a reputation for pro-union activism during the Obama administration, which the Trump White House and congressional Republicans have been eager to reverse. A 2015 post on the Morgan Lewis website touted Ring as being able to help clients with an “activist” NLRB.
“Mr. Ring will be a principled and objective voice on the NLRB, and not a rubber stamp to special interests that were in favor during the Obama administration. We commend the Senate for voting to confirm him to the NLRB so that workers can count on a balanced and common-sense approach from the board moving forward,” said Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Tim Walberg, R-Mich., in a joint statement.
Emanuel has been under fire from Democrats who say he should have recused himself from a December case called Hy-Brand that reversed a major Obama-era ruling on the “joint employer” standard, which vastly expanded corporate legal liability. Late last month, the board vacated that decision, following a report by the board’s inspector general that determined that Emanuel had a conflict of interest involving his former firm, Morgan Lewis. Emanuel has disputed that any conflict existed.
