Mainstream history teaches that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created as a watchdog for workers, a “gift” from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In reality, the federal agency was a concession by capitalist rulers following several general strikes in 1934. Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935, legalizing unions and establishing the NLRB to arbitrate worker-employer disputes.
Early on, the NLRB aided mass unionization as strikes swept the country. But letting a capitalist state dictate labor relations comes with a price, as seen in unions’ declining numbers. Now emboldened bosses want to make the NLRB their tool.
The NLRB is where workers can seek relief from employers who retaliate, hold “captive meetings” during union drives, or unlawfully replace strikers, among other things.
Yet its framework is problematic. The NLRA excludes super-exploited farm, domestic, and gig workers. And Taft-Hartley, passed in 1947, outlaws labor’s most potent tactics like solidarity strikes and secondary boycotts.
Congress has been bipartisan as it shot down any legislation aimed at rebalancing the lopsided employer-worker playing field, such as the Employee Free Choice Act. Union popularity is at historic highs, but density is low in part because labor is hamstrung by the law.
With the ascendancy of Team Trump, labor activists are looking at U.S. labor law with alarm.
In July 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court “Slaughter” decision confirmed the January 2025 firing of the NLRB’s labor-friendly General Counsel, Gwynne Wilcox. Trump replaced her with William Cowen, who rapidly reversed dozens of pro-labor NLRB policy memos. Protections for student and immigrant workers were gutted, as were employer settlements that give workers justice. Cowen also successfully sued to stop New York state from letting private-sector workers use its own labor board.
Trump kept NLRB board positions vacant as trillionaire Musk challenged the agency’s constitutionality. But in January, Trump named corporate attorney Crystal Carey as the NLRB’s new General Counsel.
In July, The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) urged confirmation of Trump’s board picks. CDW, a big business alliance, wants the NLRB functional again.
All this is fueling change at labor’s grassroots. Unionization efforts that bypass the typical legal process are increasingly popular. So are creative campaigns to organize in the gig economy, mobilize public support, and strike to win first contracts.
Workers are drawing the same conclusions as their 1930s forebears: No workplace justice, no labor peace!
