The Democratic Senate majority — most of its members, at least — has approved the nomination from President Joe Biden of Gwynne A. Wilcox for another term on the federal entity known as the National Labor Relations Board. The final vote on her nomination was close, with 51 Senators in favor and 48 against.
Alaska’s two Republicans in the Senate joined 49 Democrats and Democratic Party-allied Senators to approve Wilcox for continuing that position. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), up for re-election next year and, some expect, on his way to a potentially resounding loss, defected, joining the Republicans in opposition. The functioning of the board itself was in the balance, since another seat was already vacant, meaning Wilcox exiting its ranks without approval from the Senate for another term would have left only 60 percent of seats actually filled — not enough to conduct certain substantial business.
Three of the board’s slots are ordinarily occupied by picks originating with the president, while the other two ordinarily go to the opposing political party — and it’s one of the seats meant for the Republicans that has gone without occupancy. “Up to now, Democrats have waited patiently and foolishly for McConnell to produce his nominee, which he clearly had no intention of doing,” Harold Meyerson recently wrote in The American Prospect. (Do the circumstances remind anyone of how McConnell and Senate Republicans approached the vacancy left on the Supreme Court with the death of Antonin Scalia towards the end of Barack Obama’s time as president?)
Wilcox is known as an ally to unions, and her past roles include Associate General Counsel at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. She also held a Field Attorney role at the National Labor Relations Board before the Senate’s earlier approval for her stint as a member of the leading board. “As unions continue to grow in popularity, a fully functioning NLRB is so important to the rights of our nation’s private sector workforce,” the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers said after Wilcox’s latest confirmation.
