On August 7, 2026, the Senate confirmed current National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) Member David Prouty to a second term – Member Prouty was first appointed to the Board in 2021 by President Biden – and confirmed James Macy to fill one of two vacant Board seats.
Mr. Macy’s appointment marks an important shift in the Board’s composition. Republican appointees now will hold a majority on the NLRB. Thus, the Board will almost certainly revisit and likely reverse or modify some of the controversial union-friendly decisions issued by prior Boards. (Until now, Republican appointees James Murphy and Scott Mayer have followed the Board’s long-standing practice of refraining from overturning precedent without at least three affirmative votes.)
Some of the cases expected to be reassessed by the new Republican majority Board include:
- Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC (2023) – Created a more union-friendly procedure for union recognition without any election. Requires employers to bargain with unions upon majority card support without an election and imposes remedial bargaining for minor ULPs during election campaigns.
- Stericycle, Inc. (2023) – Set an employee-friendly standard for reviewing employee handbook policies. Under this standard, a work rule is presumed unlawful if a reasonable employee could view it as chilling their NLRA rights. This standard has created challenges for employers who wish to implement certain policies regarding professional conduct in the workplace, confidentiality, audio and video recording, and in other key areas.
- American Steel Construction (2022) – Allows unions to obtain elections for “micro-units” or “cookie cutter” bargaining units, where unions can more easily exclude employees who do not want to unionize and thus win more easily.
- Lion Elastomers LLC (2023) – Reinstated stricter standards for employers to discipline employees for offensive or abusive conduct during protected activity, overturning the General Motors standard.
- McLaren Macomb (2023) – Limited non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions in severance agreements.
- Union Election Rule (2023) – Expedited union election procedures, which created “quickie” elections that afforded employers little time to respond after unions announced their presence, and limited employers’ ability to raise certain legal challenges before an election.
- Thryv, Inc. (2022) – Expanded remedies for unfair labor practices to include consequential damages, such as out-of-pocket expenses, medical costs, and other economic losses. This expanded relief increases employer liability well beyond the reinstatement, backpay, and interest make-whole remedies traditionally ordered by the Board.
The Board may also revisit its standards for when employers can prohibit union insignia in the workplace, and when workers constitute employees rather than contractors under the NLRA, rather than continuing the standards in these areas that were recently issued by the Democratic-majority Board.
The Board also will need to continue to address its substantial case backlog. NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey, in the first memo she issued in January 2026 as the Board’s new GC, emphasized as a priority reducing the backlog of cases in front of the Board. So, while Mr. Macy’s appointment certainly opens the door for the Board to review precedent, it could still be some time before the Board issues significant decisions.
We will track these changes and report on further developments. If you have any questions about these issues or the impact of the new Board, please contact any member of Squire Patton Boggs’ Labor and Employment practice group.