The Backlog That Buried American Workers

For nearly two decades, the National Labor Relations Board went without sending a sitting member or General Counsel before Congress to answer for its actions. That changed last week.

On June 4, NLRB Chairman James Murphy and General Counsel Crystal Carey testified before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions — the first appearance of its kind in almost 20 years. What came from that hearing was a damning, data-backed portrait of what Biden's NLRB left behind, and an encouraging sign that the people now in charge are serious about fixing it.

American workers deserve an agency that works efficiently, transparently, and in a way that puts their rights first. What was testified to last week gave those who believe workers deserve better a reason for optimism. However, the cleanup job ahead is bigger than most people realize, and the clock is ticking.

Biden's NLRB Didn't Just Fail Workers: It Buried Them in Backlog

General Counsel Carey didn't mince words when Rep. Virginia Foxx asked her to describe what she walked into on day one. "Honestly, it was a mess," Carey said. "There were so many cases that were prioritized to be sent to advice because the former general counsel wanted to overturn precedent that cases were being stalled out in regions repeatedly."

That's not political spin. The numbers back it up, and they're staggering.

A June 2026 analysis by LRI Consulting Services of nearly 191,000 unfair labor practice charges filed between 2016 and 2026 found that the open caseload at the NLRB roughly tripled under Biden-era General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, from roughly 5,900 open cases at the end of 2020 to over 17,400 by the end of 2024. Median case processing time nearly doubled, jumping from 66 days to 131 days. The informal settlement rate, the agency's most efficient resolution mechanism, collapsed from 8.2% to just 3.6%.

The culprit wasn't staffing shortages. It was deliberate policy. Abruzzo's 2021 enforcement guidance required regional offices to route broad categories of cases to Washington headquarters for centralized clearance before taking action. A bottleneck that froze the front end of the system. Simultaneously, she made settlements nearly impossible by demanding full remedies with no compromise, no matter how routine the case. The data shows enforcement priorities, not headcount, drove 70 to 80 percent of the processing slowdown.

Who paid the price? Mostly small employers. Sixty-one percent of currently open cases involve workplaces with 100 or fewer employees. The businesses least equipped to absorb years of unresolved legal uncertainty.

The Trump NLRB Is Doing the Work

To their credit, Chairman Murphy and General Counsel Carey aren't making excuses. They're making progress.

Chairman Murphy testified that since he and Member Scott Mayer were sworn in on January 7, the Board has reduced its backlog from 591 pending cases to 387, disposing of 352 cases in just five months, even as 152 new cases arrived. "This production is unprecedented in recent times," Murphy said. His goal is straightforward: "to promote a Board that works — efficiently, expeditiously, and in a way that earns the confidence of employees, employers and unions."

Carey has matched that energy on the General Counsel side. Since taking office, her team has completed investigation of over 7,000 cases that were pending when she was sworn in, a nearly 40 percent reduction in the regional backlog she inherited. She rescinded the mandatory-submission regime that created the bottleneck in the first place and has pushed regions to pursue reasonable settlements again. "This is what we are supposed to do," she said, "foster positive labor management relations, not stand in the way of it."

This is what accountability looks like. This is what it looks like when the right people are in the right places, doing the job the way it was meant to be done. Putting American workers’ livelihoods ahead of partisan political games.

The Backlog Is Getting Fixed. Now Fix the Rules.

Here's what the hearing also made clear: clearing the backlog is necessary, but it's not sufficient. Biden's NLRB didn't just break the agency's operations, it broke the rules American workers live under. And those rules haven't been fully corrected yet.

Three policy distortions, in particular, demand action:

Cemex Bargaining Orders. Under the Biden NLRB's Cemex decision, a union can be imposed on workers, and bargaining obligations imposed on employers, without a secret-ballot election. If an employer commits an unfair labor practice during an organizing drive, a union can be certified without workers ever casting a vote. Chairman Walberg highlighted the real-world consequences at last week's hearing, including a fraudulent card-check certification that prompted his April letter to Chairman Murphy. Every worker deserves the right to vote on their own representation. No ruling should strip that away.

Employer Meetings on Unionization. In November 2024, the Biden NLRB overturned 75 years of precedent and effectively banned employers from holding meetings with employees to share their perspective on unionization. Under that rule, union organizers could say whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, while employers were silenced. Workers making a life-affecting decision deserve to hear both sides. Restoring the right of employers to hold informational sessions isn't anti-worker. Banning those sessions is.

Blocking Charges. When workers want to vote on union representation, including to leave a union, union leadership can file blocking charges that freeze the election process indefinitely while investigations proceed. The Biden NLRB reinstated and expanded this practice through its Fair Choice-Employee Voice Final Rule, effective September 2024. The result: union leadership gets a procedural veto over worker votes whenever the outcome might not go their way. That's not democracy. That's obstruction.

The Moment Is Now: Confirm Macy, Confirm Prouty, Get to Work

On Wednesday, the Senate HELP Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for James Macy, President Trump's nominee for the third Republican seat on the Board, alongside the renomination of Democratic member David Prouty. Under longstanding Board tradition, three votes are required to overturn precedent. Right now, without Macy, that threshold can't be reached, and Biden-era rules like Cemex, the Employer Meetings on Unionization ban, and expanded blocking charges remain on the books.

The work Chairman Murphy and General Counsel Carey have done is real, and it deserves recognition. The Trump administration set this course correction in motion, and the people executing it are delivering results. But cleaning up the backlog while leaving the broken rules in place only solves half the problem.

Workers are still waiting for their vote. They're still being denied balanced information. Their elections are still being frozen by partisan procedural tactics. Confirm Macy. Confirm Prouty. Give Chairman Murphy the majority he needs to finish the job.

American workers have waited long enough.