(Corrects seventh paragraph to show Wilcox was the NLRB’s first Black female member, not its first Black member)
By Jonathan Stempel and Daniel Wiessner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A former member of the National Labor Relations Board sued U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying he illegally fired her from the agency that protects American workers’ rights.
Gwynne Wilcox said her Jan. 27 firing, in a late-night email from the White House, violated the National Labor Relations Act, which says board members can be fired only for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office and for no other cause.
In her complaint filed in the Washington, D.C., federal court, Wilcox called her termination “part of a string of openly illegal firings” by Trump early in his second term.
The White House was not immediately available for comment.
Trump also ousted NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo on Jan. 27, though her firing was expected.
Former President Joe Biden fired the general counsel appointed by Trump, Peter Robb, on Inauguration Day in 2021.
Wilcox, the NLRB’s first Black female member, was appointed to the board by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, and her five-year term was scheduled to expire in 2028.
She is the first board member terminated since the agency was created in 1935, and her departure left the NLRB with just two of five seats filled, denying it a quorum.
That brings the agency to an effective standstill, with hundreds of cases pending against such companies as Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Tesla, Amazon.com Apple and Walmart.
Starbucks also faces dozens of cases, amid a nationwide campaign to unionize the coffee chain’s workers.
NO ‘TEST CASE’
Wilcox is seeking a court order for NLRB Chairman Marvin Kaplan, who is also a defendant, to restore her to the board.
She said she doesn’t want to be a “test case,” but staying silent threatened the independence of the NLRB and other federal agencies.
When Congress established the NLRB, “it made sure that the law would protect its independence from political influence,” Wilcox said in a statement. “My removal, without cause or process, directly violates that law.”
The NLRB enforces workers’ rights to organize, advocate for better working conditions, and join or dissolve unions.
More than 20 companies, including Amazon.com and Musk’s SpaceX, have filed lawsuits saying the president should be able to fire NLRB board members at will, and that the agency’s in-house enforcement procedures are unconstitutional.
Abruzzo has not sued over her dismissal, and might face an uphill fight if she tried.
In 2022 and 2023, two federal appeals courts rejected claims that Biden’s dismissal of Robb was improper.
(This story has been corrected to say that Wilcox was the NLRB’s first Black female member, not its first Black member, in paragraph 7)
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Daniel Wiessner and Susan Heavey, Editing by Franklin Paul and Aurora Ellis)
