Late Friday, July 9, the White House announced it had sent the nominations of Craig Becker, Mark Gaston Pearce, and Brian Hayes to be members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the U.S. Senate. If confirmed, the NLRB would have a full, five-member board for the first time since December 2007. The current members are Chairman Wilma B. Liebman and Peter C. Schaumber.
Earlier, on April 24, President Obama had announced his intention to nominate labor law attorneys Becker and Pearce for the two vacant Democratic seats on the NLRB. Hayes’ nomination to fill the vacant Republican seat was announced on Friday shortly before the nominations were sent to the Senate. By tradition, three of the five Board seats are filled by individuals of the same political party as the President in office.
Here is more information on the three nominees:
- Pearce, in private practice with a Buffalo, NY, law firm, would have a term ending on August 27, 2013.
- Becker, associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, would have a term ending on December 16, 2014.
- Hayes is Republican Labor Policy Director for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. His NLRB term would expire on December 16, 2012.
Chairman Liebman’s term expires on August 27, 2011, and Schaumber’s term ends on August 27, 2010.