Obama Appoints Controversial Labor Lawyer to the NLRB
The president also announced several appointments to the EEOC.
March 28, 2010 at 08:00 PM
2 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
President Obama used his power of recess appointment on Saturday to put Craig Becker, a union lawyer, on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Republicans in the Senate had blocked the appointment, saying Becker would use the NLRB rulemaking power to make it easier for unions to organize. There was immediate reaction to the recess appointment from the business community, as CNN explained:
“One of President Obama's Saturday recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board quickly triggered intense opposition from business groups and Republicans, who called the appointee a radical who represents a White House gift to labor unions.”
Becker is currently associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union and for the AFL-CIO.
Obama also used a recess appointment to place Mark Pearce in another of the three vacancies on the five-member NLRB. Pearce is a founding partner of the Buffalo, N.Y., firm of Creighton, Pearce, Johnsen & Giroux, which represents both public and private sector labor unions as well as individual plaintiffs. Pearce's nomination had not stirred up significant opposition in Congress.
According to CBS News, Obama also announced several recess appointments to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). They are:
- Jacqueline Berrien, to be chair of the EEOC. Berrien has served as associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund since September 2004.
- Chai Feldblum, to be an EEOC commissioner. Feldblum has taught at the Georgetown University Law Center since 1991, and founded the Law Center's Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic.
- Victoria Lipnic, to be an EEOC commissioner. Lipnic is of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Seyfarth Shaw. She was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards from 2002 until 2009.
- P. David Lopez, to be general counsel of the EEOC. Lopez is currently a supervisory trial attorney with the EEOC's Phoenix District office.
Read the CNN story on reaction to Becker's appointment.
Read the CBS story on Obama's other recess appointments.
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