Two outgoing independent senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, voted on Wednesday to block the renomination of Lauren McFerran, who currently heads the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an agency that oversees workers’ rights protections in the United States.
McFerran’s renomination would have allowed her to serve another five-year term and blocked president-elect Donald Trump from nominating someone in her place who will undoubtedly take anti-worker positions.
The two senators, former Democrats who, during Biden’s term, switched to independent status, have long been a thorn in the president’s side, blocking major policies and watering down ones he could pass.
The 49-50 vote in the Senate (with one Republican abstaining) means that, had either Sinema or Manchin voted the other way — or had one of them not attended the vote — McFerran’s appointment would have been approved. Notably, Sinema’s vote is the first one she’s made in the “upper chamber” of Congress since mid-November.
Manchin cited opposition to McFerran based on a single measure — her supporting the idea of “joint employer” responsibility for ensuring that workers’ conditions are up to par (for example, the idea that a fast-food restaurant’s working conditions should be both the franchisee’s and the larger corporation’s duty to maintain).
“It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee — with a proven track record of protecting worker rights — did not have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said in response to the failed vote.
With Trump selecting McFerran’s replacement, it means that many of the progressive decisions the NLRB has made over the past several years could be undone, starting as soon as when Trump takes office in January, when he and a GOP-controlled Senate can nominate and approve her successor. That includes the NLRB possibly reversing its most recent decision, which deemed it illegal for bosses to require workers to attend meetings in order to compel them to support certain political or religious views, a practice known as “captive audience” meetings.
Union leaders and other commentators condemned Manchin’s and Sinema’s action.
“Make no mistake: This vote had nothing to do with stopping Chair McFerran’s renomination and everything to do with reversing generations of progress workers have made toward building a fairer and more just economy,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said.
“What a huge loss for labor,” Slate’s senior writer Mark Joseph Stern said in a post on Bluesky. “Democrats had an opportunity to lock in a majority on the NLRB till 2026 … and Manchin + Sinema just sabotaged them. Now Trump can immediately stack the board with union-loathing conservatives who’ll undo four years of progress.”
“Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have cast decisive votes against Biden’s NLRB nominee. This means the Democrats will not secure control of the national labor regulator through 2026. These two Senators effectively handed Trump control of the board when his term begins,” remarked the social media account for the pro-worker More Perfect Union.
Journalist Wajahat Ali also noted that the senators blocked McFerran’s approval, recognizing that progressives have unfairly attracted the ire of Democratic leaders in recent weeks for election results last month, including in the presidential race.
“Sinema and Manchin, ‘centrists,’ yet again harm Biden and his pro labor agenda,” Ali wrote. “Not progressives or liberals, folks. The centrists.”
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