Politics

Biden Fires US Labor Board’s Top Lawyer In Unprecedented Move

Patrick Semansky/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Thomas Catenacci Energy & Environment Reporter
Font Size:
  • President Joe Biden fired National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Peter Robb after he refused to resign, according to Bloomberg Law.
  • “The removal of an incumbent General Counsel of the NLRB prior to the expiration of the term by a President of the United States is unprecedented,” Robb wrote to the Biden administration in a letter obtained by Bloomberg Law.
  • Historically, NLRB general counsels have served out their entire terms, even as new administrations have taken office, and haven’t been fired, according to the National Right to Work Foundation.

President Joe Biden took the unprecedented step of firing National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb after he refused to resign Wednesday.

President Joe Biden reportedly asked National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Peter Robb to resign by 5 p.m. Wednesday, just hours after the president was sworn into office, according to Bloomberg Law. Robb then sent a scathing letter to White House Director of Personnel Cathy Russell refusing to submit a letter of resignation before he was fired Wednesday night.

“The removal of an incumbent General Counsel of the NLRB prior to the expiration of the term by a President of the United States is unprecedented since the nascence of the National Labor Relation Act (NLRA) and the NLRB,” Robb wrote, according to the letter obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Robb added that a key component of the 1947 NLRA was to create an “independent” general counsel. The NLRB general counsel is appointed by the president, serves four-year terms and is responsible for investigating and prosecuting unfair labor practices.

“The removal of a General Counsel would set an unfortunate precedent for the labor relations of this country,” Robb said. (RELATED: Here Are The Pro-Union Labor Laws Joe Biden Has Promised To Pass As President)

Vice President Kamala Harris applauds President Joe Biden at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris applauds President Joe Biden at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/Getty Images)

Historically, NLRB general counsels have served out their entire terms, even as new administrations have taken office, and haven’t been fired, according to the National Right to Work Foundation. Former President Barack Obama’s NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin served out his entire term after Donald Trump took office.

“This unprecedented move to oust NLRB General Counsel Robb before the end of his Senate-confirmed four-year term is the very opposite of a return to ‘normal’ and a disturbing sign of just how far the Biden-Harris Administration is willing to go to pay back the union bosses that helped put Biden in the White House,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said in a statement.

Mix said that labor unions applauded Biden’s firing of Robb because he has supported rank-and-file workers’ rights over Big Labor interests. Robb ruled in favor of workers who didn’t want their union dues going toward political contributions and supported rules that made it easier for workers to vote unions out of their workplace.

“In his first hours in office, President Joe Biden has taken immediate action to secure the rights and protect the well-being of America’s working families by removing Peter Robb as NLRB general counsel,” American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Richard Trumka said in a statement Wednesday.

“A union-busting lawyer by trade, Robb mounted an unrelenting attack for more than three years on workers’ right to organize and engage in collective bargaining,” he continued.

The AFL-CIO is a federation of 55 labor unions representing 12.5 million workers.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel