“This is how hope turns into despair,” begins a blog post on the website of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. The post is about the union’s stalled attempt to organize Michigan-area Panera Bread stores. Although the union won a workplace election last year, they have yet to secure a contract with the franchise’s owners.

Their problem is that the federal National Labor Relations Board is in a state of legal limbo and therefore unable to sort out cases like this. A pair of Appeals Court rulings have said Obama’s recess appointments to the board were unconstitutional. Without the appointments,the board lacks a valid quorum.