Fresh off the news President Trump tapped Republican Philip Miscimarra to stay as head of the National Labor Relations Board comes a report that a notorious union-buster is also on his shortlist for a spot on the panel.
Minneapolis attorney Doug Seaton — currently leading a push to decertify SEIU’s right to represent 27,000 home health care workers in Minnesota — is one of three candidates Trump is considering for two open spots on the NLRB, Politico reported Tuesday.
Seaton has described himself as a “lawyer for employers” and he specializes in helping companies that don’t want their workers to unionize.
It’s not unheard of for presidents to appoint openly anti-labor candidates to the NLRB.
But Seaton is unique in that he’s a candidate that makes a living trying to bust unions, Politico said.
Seaton’s work in Minnesota is being done on behalf of an individuals caring for disabled family members who don’t want to have to hire SEIU home care aides.
But the decertification effort is funded in part by the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minnesota that also backed a “right to work” proposal in the state in 2012, Politico said.
Seaton told Politico that if he’s nominated to the NLRB, he hopes to change the tenor of the board.
“It’s gone too far in the pro-union direction,” he said, “and I think it needs to be tweaked back.”
But he also told the website he’s not totally against unions.
“It’s not accurate to say I’m anti-union. I think they have a significant role to play,” he said.
Trump is also weighing two other lawyers for the available spots on the NLRB panel.
Marvin Kaplan, a lawyer for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent agency and attorney William Emanuel from the Littler Mendelson firm, round out Trump’s shortlist.
Both men, like Seaton, are Republicans.
That means that whoever Trump appoints, the NLRB will have its first Republican majority in nine years.
The five-seat board currently only has three members: Miscimarra, a Republican, and two Democrats, Mark Gaston Pearce and Lauren McFerran.
Miscimarra, a former partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius, was appointed to the NLRB in 2013 by President Obama.
Trump made Miscimarra the acting chair of the board days after he took office in January — and officially gave him the chairman role last week.
The White House has refused thus far to comment on any of Trump’s rumored appointees.
With News Wire Services
