On behalf of the AFL-CIO, representing 12.5 million workers across 60 affiliate unions, I urge you to confirm Lauren McFerran for another term on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Chair McFerran’s record demonstrates her qualifications and commitment to the NLRB’s mission. Twice confirmed with bipartisan support, she brings decades of experience as a labor lawyer, including her service as Chief Labor Counsel for the Senate HELP Committee. McFerran has administered the National Labor Relations Act with fairness and integrity, protecting workers’ rights and ensuring due process for all parties. Her impartiality in the cases that come before her and commitment to the rule of law have garnered bipartisan respect, establishing her as a stabilizing force on the Board and underscoring the importance of her continued leadership during these challenging times.
The NLRB is the sole venue for enforcing private sector workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain outside of railroads and airlines. Workers across the country, in industry after industry, from every walk of life, have been exercising these rights at an historic pace the last few years. Fed up with a rigged economy, they have been taking matters into their own hands. As they organize, workers turn to the NLRB to conduct union representation elections and adjudicate unfair labor practice charges. For the law to uphold its promise to our nation’s workers that they are free to join together, win a voice at work, and negotiate a better deal – the process that built the middle class – the NLRB needs to function, with individuals dedicated to its mission like McFerran at its helm.
McFerran’s leadership has been pivotal for ensuring the NLRB is responsive to the growing demands of petitions and charges from employees and employers alike. Confirming her would ensure the NLRB’s current majority remains in place through at least August 2026. Failing to confirm McFerran, on the other hand, would put workers’ rights in jeopardy. Without McFerran, the progress workers have made in securing a more meaningful right to organize would be at risk.
To protect the rights of millions of workers and ensure the Board can effectively carry out its mission, I, along with millions of union members and many millions more who want to be, urge you to confirm Lauren McFerran for another term at the NLRB.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth H. Shuler
President