Trump's Latest NLRB Pick Vows Not to 'Repeat' Ethics Conflict Dogging Another Member
"I do not want to be in the position Member Emanuel finds himself in and I don't want to put a cloud over the NLRB," Morgan Lewis partner John Ring, a Trump nominee to the NLRB, told a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday.
March 01, 2018 at 02:12 PM
5 minute read
National Labor Relations Board nominee John Ring said Thursday the ethical conflicts hounding Trump-appointed member William Emanuel “cast a shadow on the good work of the board,” and he vowed to take steps to avoid any similar turmoil if he's confirmed.
Ring, a Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner in Washington, told the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that he would take seriously his commitment to decide cases fairly and to ensure his impartiality.
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The backdrop of Ring's comments is an ethical quagmire at the agency involving a vote by Emanuel, a former Littler Mendelson shareholder, to undo the Obama-era joint-employment standard. Littler Mendelson represented a party with an interest in the dispute, and the NLRB inspector said Emanuel should have refrained from voting. The watchdog report said the vote raised a “serious and flagrant” ethics issue at the agency.
NLRB chairman Marvin Kaplan and Democratic board members Mark Gaston Pearce and Lauren McFerran this week vacated the ruling in question. In rejecting Emanuel's vote in the case, Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, the board returned to the broad joint-employment standard the Obama-era board set in Browning-Ferris Industries.
Ring on Thursday, at his confirmation hearing, told senators he is compiling a list of cases—pending before the board and also before appellate courts—that could pose potential conflicts.
“I will make sure that list is complete. I don't want anything like what has happened to repeat itself,” Ring said. He later added, “I do not want to be in the position Member Emanuel finds himself in and I don't want to put a cloud over the NLRB.”
Ring is replacing former board chairman Philip Miscimarra, who returned to Morgan Lewis. Ring's financial disclosure identified 49 clients, including Google Inc., Amazon.com and Marriott International.
Republican and Democratic members asked about the ethics standards on the board and for Ring's commitment to avoid conflicts. Democratic members have expressed concern that Trump's nominees to the board will favor management and business interests over employees.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, said a “big ethics cloud now hangs” over the NLRB.
“The board has already vacated one of its most consequential decisions because the [inspector general] said it was tainted,” Warren said. “Mr. Ring, you have a background that is similar, with decades of representing the interests of corporations for a notorious anti-union law firm. This committee needs to make sure you can serve without the ethical conflicts created by Emanuel.”
She asked him to submit the list of conflicts before the committee casts its vote next week, which he confirmed again he would do. She said Emanuel's conflicts were revealed after he was confirmed and it would be “nothing short of negligent for the committee to let it happen again.”
When asked about specific issues that could come before the board, particularly the joint-employment question, Ring consistently answered that he planned to judge each case on its merit without predetermined conclusions.
“If the joint-employer issue comes before the board, I look forward to looking at the case with an open mind,” Ring said. He later added, “If the issue comes before the board, I would look at the facts with an open mind, consider the past precedents and make a ruling on the case. I want to be careful not to prejudge any case before me.”
He said also that employers and workers would appreciate action on the issues.
“Employers, unions and employees need clarity and predictability in the way they conduct their businesses and their lives,” Ring said. “It's important for the integrity of the board to have clarity on the issue as soon as possible.”
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