National Labor Relations Board Announces Promotions of Regional Staff

Today, the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board announced nine promotions among regional staff to the positions of Regional Attorney and Assistant to the Regional Director.  

“Our regional staff is the engine of the Agency, working with communities across the country to process unfair labor practice charges and run elections,” said Acting General Counsel Peter Sung Ohr. “After years of many promotions going unfilled and staffing in decline, especially in the field offices, I’m pleased to announce the well-deserved appointments of these dedicated career servants. This is a step toward investing in our Agency staff to vigorously enforce the NLRA.”  

In March, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report finding that the NLRB staff decreased 26 percent between fiscal year (FY) 2010 and 2019. Staff reductions were four times greater in the regional offices where casework originates than in the headquarters (33 percent compared with 8 percent). The report further finds that, during this period, the NLRB’s appropriations “decreased by approximately 17 percent…when considering the effects of inflation.” This represents approximately a $46 million decline in the agency’s purchasing power. 

Additionally, data from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey found that in FY 2019, NLRB employees remained highly committed to achieving the agency’s mission, but were increasingly dissatisfied with their workload, the sufficiency of their resources, and the overall organization in recent years. 

The White House Office of Management and Budget recently requested a $301.9 million budget for the NLRB for FY 2022—a 10.1 percent increase from FY 2021. The request would enable the funding of an additional 108 full-time staff in the field, necessary to bring these frontline offices to the staffing levels recently mandated by Congress. The request would allow the agency to invest $2.1 million in a comprehensive outreach program and new technology developments to increase the outreach capacity and efficiency of the Agency.  

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees, employers, and unions from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year.