Foundation Seeks to Bar NLRB Action Due to Lack of Quorum


While union officials tried to force nurse Jeanette Geary to pay dues or be fired, the NLRB upheld union officials’ right to do so. Ms. Geary appealed to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation for help. The Foundation has taken her case and run with it. David L. Streck, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP, has the story.

Jeanette Geary filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging that a local nursing union illegally forced her and others to pay for union lobbying or lose their jobs. Although the NLRB held that the union could require such payments, it had requested further briefs before issuing a final appealable order.

On Monday, February 11, 2013 the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTWF) filed its petition for writ of mandamus or prohibition with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals , seeking an order requiring the NLRB to cease adjudicating Petitioner Geary’s case until a “constitutionally seated Board with a valid quorum is in place.” In its petition, the NRTWF relied on both the Supreme Court’s 2010 New Process Steel decision, finding that the NLRB must have a quorum of at least three members to act, and the D.C. Circuit’s January, 2013 Noel Canning decision, finding that President Obama’s January 4, 2012 appointment of Members Sharon Block, Terence Flynn and Richard Griffin were not valid “recess” appointments under the Constitution.

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