Press Release  AG Campbell Calls On Court To Keep Labor Board Functioning

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO) today joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia supporting Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump.

On January 27, 2025, President Trump purported to dismiss Wilcox from the NLRB during the middle of her five-year appointment, leaving just two members remaining on the five-member Board. As the NLRB cannot act without a quorum of at least three members, it has been incapacitated by Wilcox’s purported dismissal. The coalition argues that a functioning NLRB is necessary for the enforcement of labor laws across the United States and urges the court to order the defendants to allow Wilcox to continue performing her responsibilities as an NLRB member.

In 1935, President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which guarantees American workers the right to join a union, bargain for better wages and working conditions, engage in activities like strikes and pickets, and protects workers from retaliation due to certain union-related activities. The Act also created the NLRB, an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency with the authority to enforce the NLRA, investigate violations of labor laws, adjudicate labor disputes, and certify the results of union elections.

In their brief, the states explain that Supreme Court precedent gives the NLRB broad authority over the conduct of labor relations and preempts states from regulating that conduct. As a result, the NLRB’s inability to issue rules or adjudicate unfair labor practices harms workers nationwide. By purporting to remove Wilcox and incapacitating the NLRB, the states argue that the Trump Administration has left American workers without the protection of the agency that ensures their ability to join a union and engage in collective bargaining, which workers have relied on for decades. This regulatory vacuum is deeply troubling given the importance and scale of the work done by the NLRB. In the past decade, the NLRB reviewed almost 3,000 allegations of unfair labor practices. In fact, there are currently over 491 cases of unfair labor practices pending in Massachusetts alone.

The amici states explain that the NLRB provides a general stability of labor relations and guarantees workers the right to join a union, granting them a plethora of economic benefits. The states further note that union employees earn higher wages and receive better benefits than their non-union counterparts, and that even non-union employees benefit because an increase in private-sector union membership often coincides with an increase in wages for non-union workers.  

For these reasons, the states urge the Court to grant Wilcox’s motion for expedited summary judgment and order the defendants to allow her to continue performing her responsibilities as an NLRB member.

This matter is representative of AG Campbell’s commitment to champion workers’ rights and protections, as underscored in her strategic plan. In September, AG Campbell released the AGO’s annual Labor Day Report, which highlights the Fair Labor Division's work to protect employees over the past fiscal year, including assessing more than $31.5 million in restitution for unpaid wages and penalties.

Workers in Massachusetts who believe their workplace rights have been violated are encouraged to file a complaint with the AGO’s Fair Labor Division at mass.gov/ago/fld. For more information about the state’s employment laws, workers may call the AGO’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or visit mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for information available in multiple languages.  

Joining Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in submitting this brief, which is led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, are the attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

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