Several days ago, all 47 Republican members of the Senate sent President Obama a letter encouraging him not to do what he did about this time a year ago with Craig Becker, a former AFL-CIO and SEIU lawyer. Knowing that Becker was unlikely to win Senate confirmation, Obama appointed him to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) while the Senate was out of town on recess. A “recess appointment” lasts only until the end of the session of Congress during which it is made, so Becker must leave the NLRB before Dec. 31, 2011. On December 14, Obama sent the Senate the nominations of Sharon Block and Richard Griffin to replace Becker and Wilma Liebman, whose five-year term on the NLRB expired in August. Block is currently a deputy assistant secretary of labor and is a former senior aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy and former general counsel to a past NLRB chairman. Griffin is the general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, and has been a board member of the AFL-CIO’s Lawyers Coordinating Committee since 1994. Block and Griffin are viewed as extremely pro-labor, as was Becker.