On May 23, 2024 Seyfarth Shaw announced one of their partners, Joshua Ditelberg, had been nominated to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which now must go to the Senate to be approved for the position. Seyfarth, which provides “advisory, litigation, and transactional legal services,” has boasted that five members of the NLRB have previously been Seyfarth attorneys. Biden, who has long presented himself as being “the most pro-union president in American history,” has now nominated a member of a law firm that has a long history of engaging in union-busting behavior.
Seyfarth Shaw has an extensive list of clients from industries all over the world including companies like ABC, Starbucks, and many more. They have a history of working with employers on union busting drives such as a case last year at a Coca-Cola plant in California and the Amazon KCVG warehouse. Back in 2018, they also wrote an article against “union corporate campaigns” where they warned employers against union tactics to “exploit a company’s perceived vulnerabilities.” It bears asking why a company that has a vicious history of anti-worker sentiment can be supported by a president that has been lauded for having such a pro-union stance.
It should come as no surprise that the individual being elected, Mr. Ditelberg, also has a history of anti-union sentiment. In November 2023, Ditelberg was quoted as saying the NLRB final rule on Joint-Employer Standard was “significant” and then iterated that “a joint-employment finding could saddle an unsuspecting employer with liability for an unfair labor practice or with brand new (and expensive) bargaining obligations.” Looking through the history of published articles by Ditelberg on the Seyfarth site, it is clear that his priority is protecting employers and voicing his disapproval any time workers are provided minor concessions. Even back in 2010 with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Ditelberg was cited as having concern for “short and long-term consequences” for union employers.
President Biden, throughout his presidency, has constantly talked about how America needs “good paying, union jobs” and yet is actively working to undermine the very institutions that help strengthen workers collective bargaining rights. He has also helped the railroad barons of America when he stopped a strike from happening by citing the Railroad Labor Act, effectively helping the bosses. We see here again that a nomination from a viciously anti-union company such as Seyfarth Shaw to the NLRB will only further help bosses, contradicting Biden’s claim that he is “the most pro-union president in American history”.
[…] Originally published on Labor Today […]