NLRB appoints Kenneth Chu, Christine Dibble as administrative law judges

The National Labor Relations Board has appointed Kenneth Chu and Christine Dibble as administrative law judges in its Division of Judges, effective today.  Both transferred to the Board from similar positions with the Social Security Administration.  Their appointments bring the number of NLRB judges to 37 nationwide.
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency vested with the power to safeguard employee rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative.  The agency also acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions.
With offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco and Atlanta, the Division of Judges is responsible for docketing unfair labor practice cases brought by the Board’s General Counsel on charges filed by unions, employers and individual employees.  The Division disposes of those cases by settlement or by conducting trials and issuing initial decisions, which may then be appealed to the five-member Board and thereafter to an appropriate United States Court of Appeals.
Judge Kenneth Chu becomes the first Asian-American judge in the Board’s history.  Before he was appointed a Social Security judge in June 2009, Judge Chu served as an administrative judge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), including a stint as district chief judge; he also served as deputy director of an EEOC district.  Judge Chu also spent two years as program director of the Asian American Legal Defense Fund.  He is a graduate of the City College of New York and received his JD degree from Brooklyn Law School.  Judge Chu will be stationed in the New York office of the Judges Division. 
Judge Dibble served a Social Security judge since April 2008.  Before her appointment to that position, she served as an administrative judge with the EEOC for 15 years.  She also worked as an attorney with the Service Employees International Union and as an equal employment opportunity specialist with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Judge Dibble received her B.A. degree from Colgate University and her J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School.  She will take her assignments from the Washington, D.C. office of the Division of Judges.